The New Jersey Department of Health announced Wednesday that the agency would be taking action against a Haskell pediatric facility that is the center of a deadly adenovirus outbreak.
The Health Department has banned all new admissions to the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation. The center is also required to hire experts on infectious disease control.
“This enforcement action will require the facility to be able to safely separate medically fragile children before they can accept any new admissions to the respiratory unit,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal in a statement. “The fact that we are continuing to see new, confirmed cases at this point, despite all efforts toward strict adherence to protocols, has made the facility’s layout limitations clear. This action is required to keep patients safer in the future.”
There have been 33 pediatric cases of the adenovirus associated with the outbreak, including 10 deaths of severely ill children.
Several cases of the virus have also been confirmed in a facility in Voorhees. But health officials say that it is a different strain of the adenovirus, and not related to the outbreak in Haskell.