At least 50 people test positive for coronavirus at nursing home in Pinehurst
Update: This story has been changed to reflect an update in positive cases.
At least 19 more residents have tested positive for COVID-19 at a nursing facility in Pinehurst, according to an email Thursday morning from the owners of the center.
After a person linked to Pinehurst Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center tested positive last weekend, the county’s health department tested all 96 residents and the center’s 115-person staff on Monday and Tuesday. Of those 96 residents, 45 tested positive for the illness caused by the coronavirus. Five staff members also tested positive, according to the Moore County Health Department.
Not all test results have come back. Residents who have tested positive have been isolated, according to the email. None of the residents are currently exhibiting severe symptoms.
When reached Wednesday afternoon, an employee at the facility referred all questions to Liberty Healthcare and Rehabilitation Services, which owns the center.
As of Wednesday evening, 31 people at the facility had tested positive for COVID-19. Twenty-six of those people are residents at the facility and five are staff members.
Van Bergstrom, an employee at Liberty Healthcare, emailed updated numbers to the News & Observer Thursday morning. Those numbers showed 19 more residents had tested positive than the previous day. It is unclear if any additional staff members have tested positive.
The Pilot in Pinehurst was the first to report the news. The newspaper says it made a public records request to the county’s health department for the name of the facility and was initially rejected. But the Moore County Health Department eventually fulfilled its request.
The facility’s outbreak is responsible for most of Moore County’s 57 positive cases.
More than 3,400 people statewide have been infected. A number of nursing facilities across the state have had outbreaks.
Two dozen residents tested positive for COVID-19 at an assisted living facility in Hendersonville over the weekend. At least 60 people tested positive for COVID-19 at a nursing facility in Orange County, Governor Roy Cooper said on Wednesday. Two people have died and seven are hospitalized.
And one person tested positive at a nursing home in Franklin County on Monday.
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.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 3:56 PM with the headline "At least 50 people test positive for coronavirus at nursing home in Pinehurst."
