Lawmakers are pledging to investigate the surge of COVID-19 infections at the Illinois Veterans Home at La Salle that has infected 79 residents with the novel coronavirus and killed 13 from complications related to COVID-19.

Answers from Springfield are pending; a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs fielded questions from Shaw Media but did not respond by the close of business Friday.

Some workers at the veterans home are not holding their tongues, however. These workers contacted Shaw Media and, after explaining they would face retaliation for speaking out by name, were granted confidentiality. They blame the current surge on a combination of unreliable test results and gaps in infection controls.

“We did shoot up in numbers,” said one woman, who is among the 89 infected staff members. “Our numbers have just skyrocketed.”

Shaw Media has requested public documents Thursday from the La Salle County Health Department and the state documenting any complaints that have been made about the Veterans Home. Those entities have five days to provide a response.

While she and others use PPE to protect themselves and the veterans they care for, there have been noticeable flaws in the overall infection controls. She noted, for example, the time clock — one of the most-touched items at the facility — is not regularly sanitized and there was an incidence where a seemingly proven infection control was suddenly dropped.

The Veterans Home imposed a 14-day quarantine for residents who left the premises, say for a doctor’s appointment; but that practice was halted.

“Our facility got too comfortable these last few weeks before the outbreak,” she said. "Now that was something we’ve been doing for a while and stopped, and later we have an outbreak? Why would management stop a precaution that seemed to work?”

But another worker, a man, believes the surge has less to do with vigilance than with laboratory testing that yielded skewed results.

“I want people to know we sent our tests to Springfield for 17 straight weeks. The only time we sent them to Chicago, we got 144 positives,” he said. “I think Springfield (did this to) us. I think it’s odd we went from 0 to 144 cases the same week we switched labs.”

And considering the rigid protective measures taken – thrice a day temperature checks, once-a-week COVID testing, vigilant use of masks and shields – the surge is more likely a byproduct of bad testing than a failure in infection controls, he said.

“There’s no way it spread to 144 people that fast,” he said. “That’s why I believe something went wrong at the Springfield lab, who also happened to have a COVID outbreak themselves and were probably running short-handed like us and made a mistake.”

The anonymous woman staff member partially agreed testing failures are part of the problem, as hers was among the test results that yielded a false negative. She said she was tested the first week of November and the results came back negative three days later. While awaiting results, however, she said she displayed symptoms and sought another test at a private hospital and this time she came back positive.

Her doctor further advised her of a two- to five-day lag time between infection and the onset of symptoms, meaning the on-site test should have shown her to be positive.

Meanwhile, she’s been waiting for a particular type of PPE. Coworkers were provided N95 masks when the virus prompted widespread infection controls in March; but she never got one. N95 masks are used to protect the wearer from airborne particles and from liquid contaminating the face.

“Now, I caught COVID-19,” she said, “and I still have not been fitted for an N-95 mask.”

Not helping matters are rising tensions between management, staff and leaders of the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3693. The anonymous female employee furnished a screen shot of a directive from union leadership warning staff against taking any matters public. The author was messaged for comment, but did not reply.

“Please do not talk to the press, etc.,” read the missive. “We do not want this to come back on us. AFSCME is in contact with the papers. This could turn out to be a criminal investigation.”

Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME Local 31, said there have been no complaints from union workers at this time, though membership is cognizant of the many risks of serving veterans during the pandemic.

"This goes without saying, the veterans in the home deserve and need the best care possible at all times. Despite the pandemic, AFSCME members are going to work everyday with providing the best care for the veterans in mind. That means risking themselves and risking exposure to their families."

“We believe we've followed good safety practices. We believe there's been adequate PPE and cleaning supplies. We believe management understands the risk employees are taking.”

But the anonymous woman is a longtime employee who said mismanagement is a driving force behind the surge of infections.

“Under this management it’s the worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said. “It’s a disgrace.”