In the week between Tuesday, June 23 and Tuesday June 30, there were 90 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Verde Valley, a 59% increase on the total of 152 confirmed on June 23. Camp Verde, which had just 14 cases as of June 1, now has at least 52, outpacing Sedona’s 49. Cottonwood has reached 104 cases. Yavapai County Community Health Services, which has been tracking COVID cases since March, has begun counting Cornville, Rimrock and Clarkdale as discrete zones for COVID cases, with the three smaller towns reporting 12, 11 and 13 total cases, with one additional case elsewhere in the valley. As the state of Arizona continues to break records for new cases per day, the Verde Valley is no exception. An outbreak has hit the area.
“As of this morning, we have 18 COVID POSITIVE patients in hospital,” Dr. Leon Pontikes, chief medical officer at Verde Valley Medical Center wrote in an email on Monday. “Seven of these patients are in the ICU. The fact that these patients are hospitalized indicated serious cases. There are a couple of medication treatment options that did not exist a couple months ago and may help with preventing patients from deteriorating.
“Most worrisome to me with respect to our local communities is the fact that these are all ‘local’ cases. This is by far the highest number of COVID cases that VVMC has had in hospital, and to my knowledge, none of these patients have been transferred in from outside our local area. This indicates an increased presence of infections with the virus within our communities. It’s important to remember that hospital admissions are not dependent on the numbers of patients being tested in the community, but hospital admissions represent the ‘tip of the iceberg’ reflecting the sickest patients from the total number of increased infections in the community”
A significant portion of the cases in the area are centered at the Cottonwood Village assisted living facility. On June 20, Cottonwood Village emailed families telling them that two residents and two staff members had tested positive for the virus and that the facility would be testing all residents.
On June 25, the facility emailed residents informing them that 19 residents had tested positive, though 15 had not exhibited symptoms. Five employees, including Executive Director James Brassard, also tested positive. As of press time, the facility is still waiting on results for 64 additional tests after testing all residents and employees on June 19. Five residents were sent to Verde Valley Medical Center preemptively.
The facility has implemented strict protocols to prevent the spread of the virus, including limiting visitors to only essential healthcare personnel, strict disinfecting and sanitizing, and requiring personal protective equipment for all staff.
Susan Turkell, Public and Investor Relations for Capital Senior Living, which owns the Cottonwood Village, wrote in an email that residents are being isolated to their units.
“We will continue to monitor for possible symptoms and take temperatures and offer in-room dining only,” Turkell wrote.
Spectrum Healthcare, which has been handling a significant portion of testing for the area, has also started having cases among staff, leading to increased measures to limit spread among employees.
“Out of an abundance of caution and care for our patients and staff, we limited in person traffic at our main campus and Sedona offices this past week,” Spectrum CEO April Rhodes wrote in an email. “This allowed us time to provide testing to those that wanted it as well as quarantine those who were possibly exposed. Approximately 46 employees were tested this week as a result of possible exposure. We are pleased to report that the majority of these tests have been negative. We’re confident that the social distancing and disinfecting measures we have had in place since March played a big role. Unfortunately, we did have one additional staff person test positive.”
On June 26, Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District informed families of a positive case on a bus route in Cornville that had been delivering food to families, shutting down the route until Wednesday, July 1 and urging families to be on the lookout for symptoms.
“The district is advising families along the route to self- monitor by taking their temperatures twice a day and to keep an eye on other respiratory symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath and sore throat until 14 days after, June 26th, 2020,” Superintendent Steve King wrote in a press release. “COVID-19 is very real and is now in our community and we encourage people to do their part by washing their hands, physical distancing when possible, please be responsible when in public.”
Correction: A typographical mistake in the print version of this article identified Susan Turkell as Susan Turkey. We regret the error.
