WEBSTER, MASS. (WHDH) – Three people died and dozens more were infected after a coronavirus outbreak spread rapidly through a rehabilitation center in Webster last month, a city official said.
A total of 51 of the 58 residents at the Brookside Health and Rehabilitation Center have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks, according to Webster’s city administrator, Doug Willardson.
The first positive test was reported on December 22, Willardson said. Fifty more positive cases have been reported since then.
Six residents were hospitalized and another three died of the virus. Since then, two people have been discharged from the hospital.
“” Our residents are not … they are not our patients … they are our family, “said nursing director Felicia O’Keefe. “There are many that we consider more grandparents than patients. So it’s definitely hitting us a lot right now. “
Willardson noted that the cause of the outbreak appears to be linked to a certified nursing assistant who was asymptomatic, but later tested positive.
“He worked on several asymptotic long shifts – not knowing he was sick and, unfortunately, that was the way he came into our building,” confirmed O’Keefe.
Webster’s Director of Public Health, Jennifer Sullivan, confirmed that the National Guard responded to the facility.
“It is more than disturbing to see this happening in such a close-knit community within those walls,” Sullivan said in a statement. “They continue to provide the best care and attention to their residents during this devastating period and are supported by the National Guard and the Rapid Response Team.”
Sullivan added that the facility “has gone beyond any and all procedures and protocols” since the pandemic began.
In November, the facility posted on Facebook that it had been free of COVID since the pandemic began.
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