(This story was updated at 5:20 p.m. to correct the name of the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs.)
The outbreak of COVID-19 at the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs Center in Claremore has grown since it was first announced by the agency in July.
According to Shane Faulkner, ODVA’s public information officer, 128 residents have now been confirmed to test positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. 35 of those residents have died.
The agency has previously said that the death totally counts those who died after a positive test for the virus, and that it may not have been the immediate cause of death.
In addition to the residents, Faulkner said 61 employees tested positive.
ODVA has not held a press conference on the Claremore outbreak since July 28, when the agency’s executive director, Joel Kintsel, said 10 residents had died that month. Hartsel then said the virus was believed to have been unintentionally brought into the facility by an asymptomatic staff.
Bill Richey, post commander for Claremore’s Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) # 2976, said his group is typically very involved in activities and visits to the center, but that he has difficulty obtaining information about the outbreak.
“They’re pretty closed,” said Richey, who told Public Radio Tulsa he hadn’t heard of further deaths since the July 10 announcement. “We try to keep her as close as possible, but she does not even tell us. It is not to try.”
“It’s sad to see,” said Richey, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. “I know when I’ll be back and start playing bingo with them again. We will not see many of them, you know. It just will not happen.”
“All I know is what I read in the paper because they did not leave any of us above,” said Geraldine Brown, president of Claremore VFW Auxiliary. “It’s closed to people who have families and all of them.”
Keith Austin represents District 14, which includes Claremore, on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council. He said the Claremore Center serves veterans from all over Oklahoma, and that he only knows personally of one local veteran, a Cherokee senior, who died at the facility.
“What we do know is that everyone is someone who has given a part of their life to defending the United States of America,” Austin said. “Every person who has died has done that. They died of this disease at their most vulnerable time in life.”
“This is a scary, scary thing when we get into common life situations for our elders,” Austin said. “It’s a scary, scary environment. It can create such a wildfire in a community of people who have no resistance to it.”
Faulkner said Wednesday that the ODVA and all center staff are working around the clock and doing the best they can to manage the outbreak and continue with ongoing care, and are receiving help from the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the U.S. Department or Veterans Affairs.
“We have people who work harder than anyone should ever be asked to do,” said Faulkner of ODVA staff. “It’s so easy to upset their morale. When we appear in the news, it’s so often because of something bad happening in one of the centers, like the other 364 days of the year we do great things.”
The agency provided the following statement:
“The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs (ODVA) remains committed to providing high quality resident veterans care to prevent and treat COVID-19 cases at the Claremore Veterans Center. We are grateful for outstanding support and partnerships with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Muskogee and Oklahoma City Health Care Systems) and the Oklahoma State Department of Health who have been promoted by volunteer resources and expertise during recent occurrences of positive cases.
Communication with Claremore residents and the designated agents as representatives of the residents or family representatives still takes place via letters of the week supplemented by telephone, email or letter communication as needed. The Claremore Veterans Center will maintain regular correspondence as long as the pandemic response continues. ODVA extends sincere appreciation for the understanding of residents and families of protective measures in place.
This has been a busy time, but we believe that the resistance of our residents along with the hard work and dedication put in by the staff at Claremore Veterans Center will be what our heroes see through this terrible virus. “
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