Families and advocates for nursing home residents are calling on Texas officials to release the numbers and names of facilities where coronavirus infection has been reported, as other states have done.
At least 320 residents and staff members at Texas nursing homes have tested positive for the new coronavirus. At least 18 people have died. And at least seven nursing homes, across five metro areas, are grappling with infections of 10 or more people.
But those numbers, collected by The Texas Tribune from various public health departments and local news reports, likely underrepresent the extent of the COVID-19 outbreak in Texas nursing facilities. That’s because Texas, unlike some other states, is failing to disclose comprehensive data on nursing home residents and staffers who have fallen ill — even though state officials acknowledge they are privately tracking that data.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission said the agency investigates nursing facilities for compliance with health and safety rules when there is a report of a staff member or resident testing positive for the disease.
Weldon also confirmed that the health commission was tracking COVID-19 cases in nursing homes statewide, though she declined to release its figures.