23 new COVID-19 cases reported at NC senior facility, despite ‘aggressive’ policies
Nearly two dozen new cases of people testing positive for COVID-19 have been reported at an assisted living community in Henderson County — the latest outbreak at a facility serving North Carolina senior citizens.
The Henderson County Department of Public Health announced Sunday that they had received positive confirmation of 23 cases of COVID-19 linked to residents and staff at Cherry Springs Village.
“I want to acknowledge the obvious concerns this will create for residents and their families,” Steve Smith, Henderson County Health Director, said in a news release Sunday. “It is a very difficult situation for all involved. Since the identification of these additional cases, the staff and leadership of the facility and all of our public health partners including Pardee Hospital, Advent Health and Henderson County Emergency Services have been communicating and prioritizing strategies and actions to care for those affected and to reduce the risks for others at the facility.”
Hendersonville is located south of Asheville and about 250 miles west of Raleigh.
The Hendersonville cases come after Johnston County announced Saturday that three residents and a staff member at the Springbrook Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Clayton tested positive for COVID-19, the News & Observer reported.
Seniors are at high risk of catching COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They’re even more at risk at facilities where there are a number of elderly people living together.
Cherry Springs Village “has adhered to aggressive infection-control policies” since early February, according to a statement Sunday from a facility spokesperson.
There are COVID-19 outbreaks at eight nursing homes and four residential care facilities in the state, according to data compiled by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. State figures also show that while people ages 65 and older account for 21% of North Carolina’s COVID-19 cases, they make up 84% of deaths.
Henderson County said that all residents and their families and staff at Cherry Springs Village have been notified.
All the people who tested positive are being treated in isolation and the community is under quarantine until further notice, according to a Cherry Springs spokesperson.
