Death toll at Henrico nursing home climbs to 39

Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center now has 39 patients who have died from causes related to COVID-19, the Henrico County center reported Thursday afternoon. Six died within the past 24 hours. This now exceeds the 37 deaths at the Seattle nursing home that was a highly publicized, early coronavirus outbreak hotspot in the United States.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reported 109 deaths, not counting the six new deaths from Canterbury.

Local VDH personnel have worked closely with the nursing facility, which has approximately a third of the county’s positive cases, which numbered 319 on Thursday morning, and a majority of the Central Virginia region’s COVID-19 deaths. According to the center, there are 84 living residents and 25 staff members who have tested positive, although not all have shown symptoms.

Nursing homes are a particular area of focus for public health officials across the country, as they represent multiple risk factors: many people in close quarters, staff members who often work shifts at more than one home, and vulnerable people who often have underlying health conditions or are recovering from recent illness or surgery.

Henrico County personnel have contacted all 41 nursing homes in the county to offer assistance, including providing testing and personal protection equipment for staff members, and Dr. Danny Avula, director of the Richmond and Henrico health departments, said he has been in contact with several residences in the county and the city, some of which have seen clusters of COVID-19 cases. At the Masonic Home of Virginia in the county’s East End, one resident died from virus-related respiratory failure, Avula announced last week.

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