Nursing homes are being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of deaths in long term care health facilities has doubled since last week. Nation wide so far 35,000 seniors and staff have tested positive for Civid-19 and 5700 have died. Nursing homes have been closed to visitors for over a month now because of the pandemic.
After an anonymous tip by a staff member, reporting that a body had been stored in a shed, police found 17 bodies in the morgue for New Jersey’s largest nursing home, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation I and II Long-term Care Facility. The small morgue was meant to handle four bodies at a time. I probably depicted the morgue too large imagining it able to handle 3 autopsies. 68 people from the nursing home as well as 2 staff members have died in recent weeks. 26 tested positive for Covid-19. This is a 700 bed facility and privately owned. Owners of the private facility were not answering calls.
Local Mayor Michael Lensak said on April 16, 2020, “According to the county there were only 10 dead in the home, but that was updated to 22 deaths in the morning, and now reports are of 68. It is very disconcerting to not have the proper information coming out of a facility.” Families who lost loved ones say they received form letters telling them
their loved ones were sick, and in at least one case, the letter
arrived after the patient died. The outbreak, and problems with how bodies are handled, prompted the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to order an investigation.
More than 180 other residents and staff are showing respiratory or flu-like symptoms. Andover Subacute has only a one-star rating on Medicare.gov – or “much below average” – with deficiencies found in health inspections and staff assessments.
There have been rumors that FEMA and the National Guard might be called in to lend medical assistance. Arrangements are being made to try and get personal protective equipment to staff. Officials arranged for a refrigerated truck to be brought to the nursing facility to be used as an overflow morgue. It is a fluid hanging situation that is a hint at what is happening across the country.
New Jersey now has more than 75,000 Covid-19 cases with 3518 total deaths and on April 16, 2020 362 new deaths were reported; of that number, 54
people had been living in long-term care facilities.