An entire senior citizen home has reportedly been infected with coronavirus, forcing a mass evacuation of the facility.
Around 24 of 94 elderly people from St. Joseph’s Senior Home in Woodbridge have tested positive for coronavirus and 70 more clients are also thought to be carrying the disease, as per officials.
John Hagerty, a spokesperson for the city of Woodbridge stated that the first person to test positive was reported on March 17 and at least one positive test has been sent back each day after.
And while not all patients have yet been tested, and not all tests have come back thus far, officials said they are unfortunately already thinking about the worst possible scenario.
“This is the presumption,” Hagerty revealed to NBC News. “That all have been exposed and would be positive.”
To make things worse, a number of employees at the nursing home, including a nun, have also been infected, leaving the place with significantly reduced staff, as per CareOne, which runs a chain of senior citizen homes in New Jersey.
On Wednesday, the entire group of infected patients from St. Joseph’s have been taken to CareOne’s Hanover, Whippany branch.
In order to make space for new patients from St. Joseph’s, all the inhabitants of CareOne were transferred on Tuesday in a plan introduced by health authorities, a CareOne spokesperson revealed on Wednesday.
30 patients were moved to a CareOne facility in Morristown, 20 to Parsippany, 7 more to Livingston and one person was taken to a hospital for a non-coronavirus-related problem, as per the spokesperson.
“So (the St. Joseph’s patients) tested positive, so they couldn’t co-mingle” with the CareOne Hanover residents,
“The (CareOne) families were understanding. Certainly it was an inconvenience, but this is a national health emergency,” the spokesperson said.
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