One nursing home outbreak considered over; COVID-19 case count increases by 10 – Salisbury Post – Salisbury Post

By Natalie Andersonnatalie.anderson@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY One nursing home outbreak was considered closed Friday and additional 10 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Rowan County after 122 additional tests were conducted.

There were no additional deaths.

A total of 630 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the county, with 229 currently positive an increase of three since Thursday. The total number of tests reported to the county is 3,575. An additional seven recoveries were reported on Friday, bringing the recovery total to 364. A total of 37 individuals have died, and nine are being hospitalized.

While no deaths were reported Friday, a total of 10 deaths have been reported since Tuesday. Of the 37 deaths, 20 are from the Citadel, 15 are from the N.C. State Veterans Home located on the campus of W.G. Bill Hefner VA Medical Center and two have not been associated with a congregate living facility. The average age of the deaths is 83.

County spokesperson TJ Brown said the county worked with the state on Friday to validate COVID-19 data, which resulted in an increase in the total number of congregate care facility cases to 210 after it was discovered that six additional positive employees at the Citadel were residents of Rowan County. Those cases were included in the overall positive count but not originally linked to the Citadel employee count on the data hub.

The validation also discovered 14 additional Citadel employees have tested positive for COVID-19, but those employees arent residents of the county. The total number of positive employees at the Citadel, who live in Rowan County, is now 40, along with 112 residents.

Brown also clarified how deaths are supposed to be reported to the county from the veterans home in particular. The veterans home delayed its reporting of the eight deaths made public this week, but Brown said it could be the result of miscommunication between the veterans home and physicians at Novant Health Rowan Medical Center who tended to veterans. Veterans can be treated on the Salisbury VA or at Novant. But physicians, whether on or off the campus, are required to report COVID-19 deaths to the county.

County officials have since asked the veterans home to also report within 24 hours any deaths of which theyre aware.

State data on nursing home outbreaks is updated every Tuesday and Friday. Brown said the state and county have closed out cases at the Laurels, which had just two active cases. Only one who lived in Rowan County.

Statewide, a total of 26,488 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed after 391,231 completed tests. A total of 680 are currently being hospitalized, and 859 have died across the state.

In addition to protective equipment distributed from the state this month, some local locations anticipate receiving additional items from FEMA by June 15, including Brightmoor Nursing Center, located on West Fisher Street; Abbotts Creek Center in Lexington; Big Elm Retirement and Nursing Centers in Kannapolis; and Compass Healthcare and Rehab Rowan, LLC, in Spencer.

FEMA stated in a news release that it will distribute a total of 608,000 pieces of eye protection, 6.9 million masks, 6.4 million gowns and 31.4 million pairs of gloves to 15,000 nursing homes across the U.S.

In other COVID-19 statistics:

Contact reporter Natalie Anderson at 704-797-4246.

Original post:

One nursing home outbreak considered over; COVID-19 case count increases by 10 - Salisbury Post - Salisbury Post