Nearly a dozen nursing homes from Munster to DeMotte have reported COVID-19 deaths to the federal government, new data shows.

The information was recently released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported as of May 31. It provides a more detailed look at where the pandemic has hit long-term care facilities, since Indiana has refused for months to identify which ones have had outbreaks.

Sebo’s Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Hobart, 15 COVID-19 deaths

Aperion Care DeMotte and Miller’s Merry Manor in Portage, 10 each

Munster Med-Inn, and Merrillville’s Lincolnshire Health & Rehabilitation Center, four each

Crown Point Christian Village in Winfield, and Aperion Care Tolleston Park in Gary, three each

Symphony Care in Chesterton, Aperion Care Arbors Michigan City, and Hammond-Whiting Care Center, one each

Of 40 local nursing homes listed for May 31, eight provided no information, including Dyer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 601 Sheffield Ave., which multiple sources said last month had at least eight deaths and 85 cases. The federal government also is not requiring facilities to report data before May 6, although some may choose to, it said.

The federal information is not complete, however. It accounts for just over 50 deaths between Lake, Porter, LaPorte and Newton counties. Overall, Lake County reported at least 104 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities alone, compared to 25 in Porter County, per the most recently available figures.

Federal data also showed 17 local nursing homes reported at least a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases through May 31. It is not immediately known how many recovered from their illness. Those with the highest total reported caseloads included Sebo’s Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Hobart, 160; South Shore Health & Rehabilitation Center in Gary, 118; St. Anthony Home in Crown Point, 66; Aperion Care Tolleston Park in Gary, 52; Life Care Center of the Willows in Valparaiso, 41.

As Indiana keeps nursing home data under wraps, what is known about outbreaks can be a patchwork that varies widely.

When asked if any of the federal data was incorrect, especially Sebo’s, Jack Horner, President/CEO of Major Hospital in Shelbyville, which oversees it, along with Munster Med Inn, Lincolnshire and Dyer Rehab said his nursing home director of operations was out of the office this week.

A representative from the Gary Health Department, which collects data on Sebo’s for the Lake County Health Department said they did not have records of an outbreak and would double-check the figures. A call to the nursing home was not returned.

Since their first resident tested positive on May 17, Hammond-Whiting Care Center has seen 13 COVID-19 deaths, including eight that died in the hospital, Life Care Centers of America Executive Director Kelly Duhaime said in a statement. From the facility, 31 residents are still infected, with four hospitalized, she said. Two have recovered and an additional 19 tested negative. At the facility, 23 staff members tested positive, and remain at home, per CDC guidelines, Duhaime said.

In Winfield, there were no active cases at Crown Point Christian Village, Christian Horizon COO Ray Dickison said. The facility had four COVID-19 deaths, with nine others infected who have since recovered, he said. In total, it has about 175 residents who live there.

Nursing homes are a “very difficult environment” to stop transmission of a disease like COVID-19, Horner later said. As they followed CDC guidelines, their most important consideration was to protect patients and staff, he said.

“I am grieving with the residents and their family members who have endured the pain, suffering, and loss of life caused by COVID-19,” he said via email last month, in response to a May 11 story on Dyer Rehab’s outbreak.

Like other nursing homes, Sebo’s has been hampered by a lack of tests, it said on its website. For 10 weeks, it has put precautions including symptom screening for residents/staff, enhanced environmental cleaning, visitor restrictions and ordering additional supplies, it said.

Any resident showing “signs or symptoms” is isolated with vital signs and oxygen levels monitored more closely. It is monitoring vital signs at least once per shift for all residents and twice for those with symptoms. Communication to family representatives or those with power of attorney is done “as quickly as we can,” it said.

“We’ve seen in hospitals and facilities all around us as well as in our own building how difficult this virus can actually be, so we know we each have to do what we can to fight it,” Miller’s Merry Manor Executive Director Beth M. Ingram said in a statement.

“Some weeks ago, Federal surveyors came into our building and toured our COVID unit,” she said. “Like the rest of the Miller’s buildings, very early on we had set up a fully equipped unit so each location could be ready if ever it was needed.”

Ingram praised her staff, and families as they had to come up with alternative ways to visit, like Facetime and standing outside windows. When later asked over the phone if federal data was correct, she said she couldn’t comment outside of the statement.

Aperion Care declined to comment on specifics when asked about cases in DeMotte, Gary and Michigan City.

“Aperion Care will not address any specific cases or incidents, as it is our policy not to do so,” spokeswoman Heather Levine said

Indiana State Health Commissioner Kristina Box announced all nursing home employees would get tested at least once in June to help track and prevent transmission.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid set up an interactive map that gives the public with the option of learning which homes have had outbreaks, if they have reported. They acknowledge the map is likely incomplete, even with data it received. It estimates at least 31,700 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes or long-term care facilities in the United States. Those figures likely are not the full picture, since it acknowledged at least 2,000 facilities have not yet reported.

To find per-facility information, Google “CMS COVID-19 nursing home data,” click the top link and scroll down to an interactive map, “search for a nursing home.”