Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Following An Anonymous Tip, New Jersey Officials Discover 17 Dead At Nursing Home
The New York Times: After Anonymous Tip, 17 Bodies Are Found At Nursing Home Hit By Virus
The call for body bags came late Saturday. By Monday, the police in a small New Jersey town had gotten an anonymous tip about a body being stored in a shed outside one of the state’s largest nursing homes. When the police arrived, the corpse had been removed from the shed, but they discovered 17 bodies piled inside the nursing home in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people. (Tully, 4/15)
CNN: New Jersey Nursing Home: Tip Leads Police To 17 Bodies In Facility's Morgue
A tip of a body in a shed led Andover Police to one of New Jersey's largest nursing homes Monday evening where they found 17 bodies in the facility's morgue, one of the responding officers told CNN... "The staff was clearly overwhelmed and probably short-staffed," Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson, one of the responding officers, told CNN. "The residents were expiring. Why? We're not sure if it's from Covid-19 or from other diseases, but we tried our best to ease the burden." (Holcombe and Alsharif, 4/16)
NBC News: Coronavirus Deaths In U.S. Nursing Homes Soar To More Than 5,500
The number of reported coronavirus deaths in long-term care facilities has more than doubled to 5,670 since last week, according to state health data gathered by NBC News, driven by huge increases in hard-hit states like New York, where more than 2 percent of nursing home residents have died of the virus. The death count is based on data from 29 state health departments and includes nursing homes, assisted living and other long-term care facilities. (Strickler and Khimm, 4/15)
The New York Times: Virginia Nursing Home Had Plenty Of Coronavirus Patients But Few Tests
After the first positive coronavirus test at a Virginia nursing home in mid-March, its administrator said, the staff restricted visitors, conducted temperature checks at the end of every worker’s shift and isolated residents who had tested positive into separate areas. Even so, there suddenly was another case. Within two weeks, dozens of others inside were falling ill. (Romero, Ivory and Bogel-Burroughs, 4/15)
Los Angeles Times: Prosecutors Open Coronavirus Inquiry At Bay Area Nursing Home
Prosecutors in the Bay Area have opened an investigation into a nursing home in Hayward where 13 people have died after contracting the novel coronavirus. A spokeswoman for Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy O’Malley said Wednesday that her office had begun an investigation into Gateway Care & Rehabilitation Center. Officials said 41 residents and 26 staff members there have tested positive for COVID-19. (Hamilton, 4/15)
