Canterbury Rehab: 16 residents, including 5 in past 24 hours, dead from COVID-19

Sixteen residents of a Henrico County long-term care facility have died from causes related to COVID-19, the center reported Thursday afternoon.

Five people who lived at Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center died in the past 24 hours, according to a statement from Canterbury Administrator Jeremiah Davis, and three earlier deaths were confirmed as positive cases following postmortem testing.

So far, 92 in-house or hospitalized residents have tested positive, 53 of whom are asymptomatic carriers. All residents were tested earlier this week with assistance from the Henrico County Health Department. The other 39 positive patients are showing mild to severe symptoms and 35 people tested negative, although officials across the country have noted that current COVID-19 tests sometimes return false negatives.

“We now know that 58% of our COVID-positive population is asymptomatic,” Davis wrote in a statement. “This knowledge is power, providing insight that has enabled us to quickly separate positive residents from those who are negative. It is hopeful that many of these residents will never develop symptoms.”

Canterbury has seen the worst spread of the coronavirus in Virginia, making up the majority of Henrico County’s positive cases and a significant number of the state’s more than 40 deaths from COVID-19.

Currently, people with less-serious cases of the virus are being kept in an isolated unit of the center, and staff members who have tested positive or been exposed are in quarantine.