COLONIE – A deadly coronavirus outbreak infected the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, taking the lives of nine nuns in just over a month.
Thirteen nuns have died at the facility since November 25. Albany County officials were initially unable to identify the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus. On Tuesday night, county spokeswoman Mary Rozak emailed the Times Union a statement from County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen, saying the county was aware of the nine COVID-19-related deaths.
“Four of the deaths associated with the congregation were reported earlier this month by hospitals,” said Whalen in the statement. ‘The other five were not reported to the Albany County Health Department by the unit. “
The deaths of COVID-19 in the 370-year-old congregation at St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Watervliet-Shaker Road, a convent, are part of the region’s worst infection period since the pandemic began last winter.
“Our department has been working with the congregation on outbreak control since early December, and has worked with additional private professional staff brought in from the facility to provide infection control guidance,” said Whalen. She said the facility is not under the supervision of the state Department of Health from other regulatory agencies.
“Our most sincere condolences go out to those in the community,” said Whalen.
Rozak said he could not comment on individual names according to the privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Liability Act. Seven of the 13 nuns who died were in their 90s, five in their 80s and one in their late 70s. , showed the obituaries.
The facility houses 140 nuns, according to its website.
“All of us in the Diocese of Albany are praying for the Sisters during this challenging time,” said Mary DeTurris Poust, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. “In addition to the loss of so many beloved sisters who have served their neighbors selflessly for decades, there is the added difficulty of not being able to celebrate their lives as a community due to the restrictions of COVID. As for so many people who have lost loved ones in recent months, the already difficult task of grieving is made even more difficult by isolation and a lack of closure. “
On Monday, Poust reported that Sister Mary Rose Noonan, communications director for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, said the facility “was still in the midst of this sadness” and was not ready to give a public statement.
Noonan also said that the house “had cases like all other nursing homes, but the deceased were not all COVID patients and we would like to protect the privacy of all our sisters at the moment.”
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The congregation’s Facebook page described the convent and monastery as a “Catholic community of religious women who work to bring God’s unifying and reconciling love wherever it is needed. Through our ministry in education, health, parish and social services , arts, spiritual direction, counseling and hospitality and through our life together in prayer and community, we try to serve all of God’s people, especially the poor ”.
In the comments section of a post announcing one of the deaths, a woman commented, “So many beautiful sisters have missed this holiday. May their memories be eternal. My sincere condolences to the whole community.”
On December 11, WNYT reported that an indoor memo said 22 sisters tested positive for COVID-19.
On March 16, St. Joseph’s announced on its website that, in light of the pandemic and the guidelines of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and the state Department of Health, it was suspending general public access to facilities and banning all visits until further notice. All masses, meetings and programs were canceled until May 31.
The congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph dates from 1650 in the south of France. The sisters were disguised during the French Revolution, after five of them were executed by revolutionaries. The congregation moved to the United States near the village of Carondelet, near St. Louis. The sisters opened a school in Oswego and later moved to Albany, where, among other things, they founded the College of Saint Rose in 1920.
The Latham site, which dates from 1963, serves as the center and seat of the congregation’s Albany province. It includes the congregation’s office space, a music center, archives and a home for retired congregational nuns, retired nuns in need of long-term health care and nuns whose ministries are located inside and outside the complex.
In May, the Times Union reported that the Teresiana House on the extension of Washington Avenue in Albany, another health center affiliated with the Catholic Church, was being investigated by the state Department of Health after more than 100 cases of COVID-19 were detected among residents and employees – and 14 infected residents died.