A Colorado Springs nursing home, where health officials believe the coronavirus claimed the lives of more than a dozen residents, will shut its doors for good in November.

Laurel Manor Care Center will permanently close Nov. 1 “as the nonprofit considers new options to meet the growing demand for a wider range of housing choices for senior citizens in the Colorado Springs area,” according to a statement from its management, Volunteers of America National Services.

The state did not order the closing, said Peter Myers, a spokesman for the state’s Health Facility Education and Quality Branch of the Department of Public Health and Environment. A statement from the facility’s management did not disclose what led to its decision.

The facility is working with the CDPHE “to ensure that all residents are safely transferred to another facility where they can get quality health care,” Myers said.

Each resident will “have a safe, detailed transition plan” to find new facilities in the area, according to Sharon Wilson-Geno, VOANS executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The closure comes nearly six months after the first case of the coronavirus was confirmed at the facility, and as of Wednesday, Laurel Manor is still included in a list of active outbreaks across the state, according to state data.

Most recently, five residents and 11 staff members have tested positive, according to the El Paso County Public Health’s list of outbreaks, which was last updated Sept. 1. Two staff members also presumably have the virus, data showed. 

Since March, eight residents have died from COVID-19, while six other deaths were likely caused by the respiratory virus, according to state data.

Forty residents at the facility likely contracted the virus, data shows. Tests from 25 residents came back positive, while 15 were determined to be probable cases. Officials believe more than four dozen staff members contracted the virus after 17 tested positive and another 29 were marked probable cases.

Toni Krafft said she plans to look for a new facility for her husband, Jerry, who has lived at Laurel Manor for the last three years, but ultimately, she hopes they can be under the same roof again.

The couple talks on the phone on a daily basis, but cannot see each other after the facility prohibited visitors even from talking to their loved ones through the window, Krafft said.

Before they knew that Laurel Manor would close, the couple had been planning to move back in together, with help from a certified nursing assistant, at the end of October.

Despite the outbreak, Toni Krafft said she isn’t concerned about her husband coming home.

“I have no misgivings — he’s been fine the whole time, he didn’t get anything,” she said, noting that the facility tests its residents for the virus. To mitigate the spread of the virus, she said staff has told her husband to wear a mask, stay in his room and eating in the cafeteria has been prohibited.

She admits the isolation has likely been more hard on her than her husband, who has seen death more than the average person has from his service in Special Forces, she said. She recalled when her husband told her about another resident at the facility who refused to wear a mask, marched into the hallway and refused to move. The person later died, according to Toni Krafft. 

“That was really too bad. Even though he has seen a lot of deaths, he knows how to handle it,” she said of her husband. “It’s not a devastating thing for him like it would be for somebody else who hasn’t been exposed to death as much.” 

Nationwide, nursing homes continue to act as breeding grounds for the virus as facilities struggle to contain the spreading germs due to shortages of personal protective equipment and inadequate protocols, the Associated Press reported last month.

Though people living in long-term care facilities represent less than 1% of the U.S. population, they account for 43% of coronavirus deaths, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Earlier in the summer, COVID-19 cases surged nearly 80% nationwide, driven by the spread across the South and much of the West, the AP reported.

Since July 5, outbreaks at seven long-term care facilities in El Paso County, including Laurel Manor, have been reported to the county’s health department, according to its website. 

Seventy-seven employees will lose their jobs at Laurel Manor after the nursing facility closes in November, according to an Aug. 28 letter from the vice president of Human Resources for VOANS.

In the letter, VOANS said it will work with current staff to find new employment.