Coronavirus outbreak reported at senior living facility in Ventura

VENTURA, Calif. -- Ventura County Health Department says more residents at Townhouse Retirement Home in Ventura have tested positive for COVID-19.

The Department has confirmed 30 people at the Townhouse retirement home in Ventura have tested positive for COVID-19.

“We first found out about this outbreak on June 5,” said Rigo Vargas, Ventura County Public Health Director.

The 30 cases include both residents and staff members, but most of the cases are seniors.

"Because of the large numbers, 12 were transferred over to the hospital and currently there are about 10 of them that are still in the hospital,” said Vargas. “I do not know about the number in ICU.”

The Public Health Department’s original plan to prevent outbreaks in senior living facilities was to hospitalize people as soon as they became sick, but that won’t be the case in this situation.

“For this facility, we are actually changing the plan and to slightly better accommodate the facility and the residents,” said Vargas. “Because of the large number of positive individuals, we are instead isolating them on one wing of this large facility as oppose to transferring them out to a hospital wing.”

The Health Department says everyone in the facility has been tested. Health officials say it didn’t have information on whether there had been any deaths.

“As best as we can, the situation is under control at this point,” said Vargas.