The COVID-19 outbreak at Fort Dodge Villa Care Center has grown 20 cases since it was first identified last week, according to Administrator Lisa Eastman.

As of Friday, a total of 19 residents and eight staff had tested positive for COVID-19, taking the initially reported total of those affected from seven to 27. Test results from mass testing started coming in on Sunday.

Six Villa residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have since died, though Eastman said they were in hospice care prior to testing positive, calling their classification as COVID-19 deaths “unfair.”

“It’s been a tough week,” Eastman said. “We’ve lost a lot of good friends.”

Starting today, resident cases will start to be classified as recovered, clearing the Villa’s status as an outbreak. Recovery is typically defined as being at least 10 days past the onset of symptoms, fever-free without the use of medication and improved or resolved symptoms.

Discovery of the outbreak was initiated when one resident, transported to the emergency room for symptoms unrelated to COVID-19, tested positive on or around Aug. 22. A second resident tested positive on Aug. 25 with common symptoms that overlap with COVID-19 symptoms, originally attributed to an underlying medical condition.

The source of the outbreak was not identified.

Only one of the positive staff members has showed symptoms, Eastman reported on Friday. Most residents have been asymptomatic.

The Villa is the second nursing home in Fort Dodge to report a COVID-19 outbreak, defined as three or more positive cases, to the state. The first Fort Dodge facility to report an outbreak to the state was the Marian Home in July.

The Villa took in 34 displaced residents from Crestview Acres in Marion after a derecho storm ripped through eastern Iowa in August, leaving the Marion nursing home with substantial damage. Census was about 100 as the outbreak hit.

As of Friday, there were 29 long-term care outbreaks in Iowa, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) — a slight decrease from one week ago. The number of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care rose from 584 to 612 in the same time period.

The IDPH listed 801 current positive cases and 375 recovered cases in the state as of Friday. Given that state statistics for the Villa Care Center were dramatically lower than those reported by Eastman, it’s uncertain if the state’s reporting has been delayed. Previous outbreak reports from the IDPH for the Marian Home differed from numbers reported to The Messenger by local administrators, as well.