A nursing facility in Orinda has become the latest hot spot for COVID-19 cases, with a total of 27 residents and 22 staffers now having tested positive. The Orinda Care Center first made headlines Friday when a total of 27 people — 24 residents and three staffers — turned up positive. The facility is home to 45 total residents.

Nursing homes statewide have sadly become vectors for the coronavirus, likely as asymptomatic workers bring the virus into the facilities and unknowingly spread it to medically vulnerable, elderly residents. The trend began with the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington last month, but the Bay Area has already seen multiple outbreaks at nursing homes, including one in Burlingame that has claimed the lives of two residents so far.

As the Chronicle reports Monday, the 49 cases at the Orinda Care Center are now part of Contra Costa County's 417 total confirmed cases — and the new nursing home cases represent a significant portion of the county's 31 new cases reported today. Also, the county's latest death from the virus occurred at this facility.

Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco's director of public health, offered an update Monday on the cluster of COVID-19 cases at the city's Laguna Honda Hospital, which is home to around 750 elderly, mostly long-term residents. There are now 16 confirmed cases at Laguna Honda, with four of those among residents, and 12 among staff. Colfax said the four new cases found over the weekend were found in the South Five unit/neighborhood of the Laguna Honda campus — two residents, and two patient caregivers. To date, 290 staff members at the hospital have been tested, and 98 patients have been tested, and all are being retested with results pending. Staff and residents in the neighboring South Four unit are also being tested and retested, though no positive cases have appeared there so far.

Laguna Honda has been on full lockdown since March 25, when five staff members turned up positive for COVID-19. Prior to that, since March 6, visitors and guests had been banned from the facility, as has happened at other facilities statewide in the weeks since.

Colfax said that further steps have been taken to prevent further spread of the virus at Laguna Honda. "We are continuing to work very closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who have been at Laguna Honda for the past week," Colfax said. And among the CDC recommendations for further ensuring safety at the facility are limiting movement in the facility only to "essential" movement, and restricting access to two entrances only where all staff is screened upon entering. Also, all staff is wearing enhanced PPE in isolation areas.

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, the Canyon Springs Post-Acute Care facility in San Jose had 11 confirmed infections as of Sunday, according to the Chronicle, and Pacifica Nursing & Rehab Center had 13 confirmed cases, per ABC 7.

Photo of Laguna Honda by Christopher Michel/Flickr