Coronavirus leads to nursing home deaths in Mount Olive, Louisburg and Clayton
Three nursing home residents in Louisburg, two at a Mount Olive facility and one at a Clayton facility, have died from coronavirus.
The outbreak at Mount Olive Center includes 21 positive cases among residents and four more among staff, according to information provided to the News & Observer by Genesis Physician Services, which owns Mount Olive Center.
“I have never witnessed anything like this pandemic,” Dr. Richard Feifer, Genesis chief medical officer, said in a statement emailed to the News & Observer. “As a nation, we just do not know yet exactly how the virus is entering, so we stay as hyper-vigilant as we can, and as we learn more, we implement more and more safety precautions.”
Feifer said 57 percent of the positive tests came from people who were asymptomatic.
“It is a complex virus that is hard to detect and can take weeks to present itself,” he said. “By the time you have a positive test result, many may have already been exposed.”
According to the Franklin County Health Department, three more deaths at Louisburg Nursing Center are due to a COVID-19 outbreak. That increases the total number of coronavirus deaths at the facility to five.
Johnston County reported Wednesday evening a seventh death at Springbrook Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where 54 people have been infected. Among the 54 people infected, 35 are residents, while 19 are staff.
North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services reports 46 outbreaks at congregate living facilities around the state. The presence of two or more cases is considered an outbreak.
Of those 46, 30 are in nursing homes, including three in Durham County and two each in Wake and Orange counties.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 11:53 AM.