Wisconsin DHS releases investigation list of nursing homes with COVID-19 cases

MILWAUKEE COUNTY (CBS 58) -- Cases of the coronavirus continue to appear within nursing homes around the state.

Right now, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is actively looking into 38 facilities.

There are 12 assisted living sites in Milwaukee County under watch by DHS.

Symphony of Glendale Nursing Home told CBS 58 it has four COVID-19 cases.

“It’s an invisible disease and so we don’t know the nature of how it entered the facility," Symphony spokesperson Natalie Bauer Luce said.

Luce explained that all four people were asymptomatic.

“There’s an exclusive team working exclusively with COVID-positive patients," she said.

Symphony has isolated its residents, as has Alexian Village in Milwaukee.

They are caring for 11 residents at their site, and had 11 more who recovered.

Both facilities say they have implemented safety measures.

Area health departments are also helping state efforts, including with contact tracing.

“Local health notifies all of the individuals that do test positive, be they residents or employees, those contacts that they have been exposed based on those cases," said Ann Christiansen, MPH, health director/health officer for the North Shore Health Department.

DHS Secretary Andrea Palm says the releasing of the list is about public health and transparency.

For local leaders, this is not to embarrass, but to inform public health.

“That doesn’t mean that every single one of these or even any of them are a bad place," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said.

For more information on the DHS investigation, click here.