Maryland health officials are fining the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mt. Airy, Md. $70,000 for failing to properly isolate patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in May.

The 104-bed facility was the site of the state’s first known outbreak, and since March, 87 residents and 45 staff members have contracted COVID-19, and 29 residents and staff members have died, according to Maryland health department data.

Inspectors from the state’s Office of Health Care Quality in mid-May discovered that new residents arriving from May 7 through May 20 were not properly isolated, causing what the regulators called “immediate jeopardy to the health and safety of residents.” The Baltimore Sun first covered the reports.

According to records obtained by DCist/WAMU, the health violations cited in the office’s $5,000-per-day fine included: moving a resident who had tested negative for the virus to a part of the facility reserved for those who tested positive; nursing staff working in rooms of patients who were positive and negative for coronavirus; and insufficient staffing to prevent the spread of the virus.

Pleasant View administrators also neglected to inform the state that the home’s nursing director had resigned in April, yet one administrator told the regulators that month, “I have no concerns regarding staffing at this time,” per the report. That same administrator hung up on a Sun reporter calling about the reports.

In March,  Carroll County health department officials reported 66 positive test results at Pleasant View in one day, raising concerns about the facility’s staffing and practices. “We’re all trying to prepare for what could be ahead of us, as far as a surge,” Ed Singer, the director of the county’s health department, said at the time.

Through staff interviews and a review of Pleasant View’s records, the state officials reported that “the facility failed to properly implement infection control practices to prevent COVID-19 and was not following infection control safety practices and guidance recommended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), during a COVID-19 pandemic.”

Documents obtained by the Sun show that inspectors found shortcomings at other homes including Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville (where 21 residents have died) and Sagepoint Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in La Plata (where 37 have died), among others.

There have been over 6,600 cases among staff and residents, and more than 1,000 deaths related to the novel coronavirus, according to state data. Long term care facilities have accounted for nearly two-thirds of the state’s COVID-19 deaths and a tenth of the overall cases.