Third death reported as coronavirus cases grow at two Orange County nursing homes
A third resident at an Orange County nursing home has died from the coronavirus as the facility and another in the same county are dealing with a rise in positive cases of the disease.
According to Quintana Stewart, the Orange County health director, a resident at PruittHealth-Carolina Point died on April 8. The resident was in his or her 70s. Two other residents at the facility died earlier this month, she said, one on April 3, another on April 4.
As of Friday morning, Orange County reported 104 coronavirus cases, up six from Thursday, and one death — a PruittHealth resident.
The facility, near the Durham-Orange border, also had 86 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of early Friday afternoon, while Signature Health at Chapel Hill, has 31 positive cases, according to Stewart.
More tests are still coming in.
Of the 86 confirmed cases at PruittHealth, 66 are residents and 20 are staff. There are 90 to 95 residents at that facility, Stewart said. The news comes just two days after Governor Roy Cooper announced that at least 60 people had been affected at a facility in Orange County.
Nine PruittHealth patients are hospitalized as of Friday, two more than Wednesday.
Stewart was uncertain which one of the three PruittHealth residents who died is counted in Orange County’s cases. The other two people from the facility who died are not part of Orange County’s case or death totals, according to Stewart. This means they were not Orange County residents before living in the nursing home.
Staff vs. resident coronavirus cases at nursing homes
It is also unclear which percentage of residents versus staff have been affected at Signature Health, but the facility has two hospitalizations and no deaths, according to Stewart.
The high number of positive cases at these two facilities and others across the state, show how fast the coronavirus can spread in nursing homes and other congregate living facilities where people are in such close quarters.
There are currently 23 ongoing coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes across the state.
“The fact that we have an outbreak is not indicative that (the nursing homes in Orange County) have done something wrong or were negligent,” Stewart said. “This is just a highly contagious virus.”
People 65 and older and those with underlying health conditions are considered to be the most at-risk of a severe illness when contracting COVID-19, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cooper issued an executive order Thursday that outlines new mandatory instructions for long-term care facilities. They include halting group meals; taking the temperatures of employees before they enter the building; and increasing the monitoring of residents’ temperatures.
The News & Observer’s messages to Signature Healthcare and PruittHealth have not been returned.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 2:11 PM.
