Police in Andover, New Jersey, received a tip that there was a body in the shed of one of the largest nursing homes in the state. We still don’t know why the tip said what it said or who sent it, but police didn’t find a body in a shed.
What they did find was 17 bodies in the nursing home morgue and a nursing staff “clearly overwhelmed and probably short-staffed,” Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson 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,” he continued.
The morgue was supposed to only hold up to four people, The New York Times reported. The outlet also reported that there had been a body in the shed but it had been moved into the morgue by the time police arrived. Also, each body was in a body bag and had a proper tag identifying the deceased.
More from the Times:
The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, including two nurses, officials said. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the virus.
For the others, the cause of death is unknown.
Of the patients who remain at the homes, housed in two buildings, 76 have tested positive for the virus; 41 staff members, including an administrator, are sick with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to county health records shared on Wednesday with a federal official.
As the Times reported, New York’s nursing homes are also struggling with the coronavirus, with thousands of residents dying and thousands more testing positive for the virus.
“The challenge we’re having with all of these nursing homes, is once it spreads, it’s like a wildfire,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NY) told the outlet. “It’s very hard to stop it.”
The Times also reported that Andover Subacute had problems before the coronavirus pandemic and received a one-star rating from Medicare based on its staffing levels, inspections, and patient care.
The New York and New Jersey area nursing facilities are not the only ones affected by the coronavirus. A facility in Washington State was home to the majority of the earliest coronavirus deaths in the United States. In California, as The Daily Wire previously reported, elderly patients had to be evacuated from one nursing home because staff failed to show up for work two days in a row. The coronavirus hit the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Riverside, California, with at least 34 out of the 84 patients testing positive for the virus along with five staff members.
A news release from the Riverside County Public Health Department stated that all 84 patients were being moved to other facilities and that just one certified nursing assistant showed up for work in the past two days.
“For example, one certified nursing assistant of the 13 scheduled showed up to work at the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, which prompted Riverside University Health System and Kaiser Permanente to send a total of 33 licensed vocational nurses and registered nurses to care for the residents at the facility. Staffing demands, however, require the patients be moved today,” the department stated.