Desert Cove Nursing Center in Chandler confirmed Friday that 53 residents and staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 and, of those, four residents have died. 

The facility’s executive director, Tim Bouseman, said in a statement that 40 residents and 13 staffers have tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. 

Seven residents were hospitalized, and the rest were in isolation and being cared for by nursing home staff. 

“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of the residents who have passed away as the result of COVID-19,” he said in the statement. “Our facility is a family, and we’re all working together to take care of our residents and each other. We remain committed to providing quality care as we fight COVID-19.

He said the facility was working closely with the Arizona Department of Health Services and the local health department to ensure appropriate steps.

Long-term care facilities have seen a sharp increase in the number of residents and staffers with confirmed cases of COVID-19. In Maricopa County, cases among residents have more than doubled since mid-April to nearly 700 residents and about 300 staffers.  

Residents of long-term care facilities — which in the county’s tally includes nursing homes, assisted living, rehab and hospice facilities — account for more than half of the county’s 152 total COVID-19 deaths. And Maricopa County on April 20 confirmed the first case of a staffer who had died. 

Nursing home residents often are among the most vulnerable to the highly infectious virus because of their age and underlying health conditions. Their close proximity to one another, and the degree of care they require, makes them especially susceptible to infectious diseases. 

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At the same time, many nursing homes have come up short at controlling those infections. Staffers are already stretched thin in facilities that sometimes have a checkered history of infection control measures.

Desert Cove Nursing Home, the location of the latest confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, is one of five long-term-care facilities in the state that had deficiency citations for infection control in all three of its last three inspections, according to an analysis of Medicare data by The Arizona Republic.

Desert Cove, at 1750 W Frye Road,had deficiencies for infection control in 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to records. The facility failed to document annual tuberculosis screenings last year for four of 10 staff members.

The previous year, an inspection report stated that a nurse didn’t sanitize scissors before removing and changing a wound dressing and didn’t wash or sanitize her hands afterward. In 2017, a food service worker was observed washing dirty dishes with a plastic apron on but then not removing or changing the apron as she emptied freshly washed dishes. 

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In his statement issued Friday, Bouseman said the facility has been following the latest guidelines from state and federal authorities since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. 

He said his primary concern is the health and safety of the residents and the nursing staff and other care providers, who “are on the front line of this unprecedented outbreak.”