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BILLINGS, Mont. \u2013 It was meant to be a last line of defense to protect the most vulnerable as the coronavirus spread across the USA: State officials offered free testing in May for staff and residents at assisted-living and long-term care facilities.<\/p>\n

Canyon Creek Memory Care was among 45 of 289\u00a0facilities that initially declined Montana’s call for testing.<\/p>\n

According to state data, the virus has infected almost every resident at the facility in Montana’s largest city <\/span>that cares for people with dementia and other memory problems, and it’s killed eight since July 6, accounting for almost a quarter of the state’s 34 confirmed deaths. Thirty-six employees\u00a0tested positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t see that there’s good justification for just not testing. You’re operating in the dark,” said Christopher Laxton, executive director of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, which represents more than 50,000 long-term care professionals.<\/p>\n

Nursing homes became the first places with fatal outbreaks in the USA. Six of Montana’s earliest deaths were tied to infections acquired at a nursing home, but the state avoided the widespread early outbreaks seen elsewhere in the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy impression is that the facilities believed they had all protocols in place to keep their residents safe, were doing everything possible, and there was no need (to test) because of so few cases in their area,\u201d said Rose Hughes, executive director of the Montana Health Care Association, which represents long-term care facilities.<\/p>\n

Canyon Creek’s operator, Koelsch Communities of Olympia, Washington, hasn’t said why it turned down free testing at the facility, which has seen 55 positive cases among the 59 people who lived there when the deaths began. The company said it declined to test residents after three with symptoms in April and May were put in quarantine but tested negative.<\/p>\n

The first positive cases \u2013 a staff member and a resident \u2013 were discovered in late June,\u00a0 days after Gov. Steve Bullock lifted some restrictions on care facilities. As the outbreak escalated, the Democrat issued a statewide emergency rule that made testing of staff and residents a condition for facilities to receive visitors.<\/p>\n

Koelsch Communities, which operates in eight states, confirmed cases in at least 13 of its 39 facilities and\u00a0reported 11 deaths in other places before the Montana outbreak. Five of the deaths happened in late June at El Rio Memory Care in Modesto, California.<\/p>\n

Company spokesman Chase Salyers said those living at Canyon Creek who aren’t infected are kept separate and staff and residents will be tested.<\/p>\n

Older people and those with preexisting conditions are more vulnerable to the respiratory virus. According to a tally by The Associated Press, more than 58,000 COVID-19 deaths have involved nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. That is more than 40% of the nation’s more than 136,000 deaths.<\/p>\n

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There are no federal testing requirements, and rules differ widely among states.<\/p>\n