Odessa native at epicenter of state's COVID-19 outbreak

KIRKLAND -- Life Care Center, north of Seattle, has been the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak on the U.S. west coast. The company, with headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn., operates or manages more than 200 skilled nursing, rehabilitation, Alzheimer's and senior-living campuses in 28 states.

Chelsey (Walter) Earnest, the daughter of Bruce and Debbie Walter of Odessa, is a registered nurse who lives and works in Puyallup for Life Care Centers of America. When a call for help arrived from the company's sister facility in Kirkland, where one third of the staff and many of its residents were sick,...