WEBSTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Three people have died and dozens of others were infected after an outbreak of coronavirus quickly spread through a rehab center in Webster last month, a town official said.
A total of 51 of 58 residents at the Brookside Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks, according to Webster Town Administrator Doug Willardson.
The first positive test was reported on Dec. 22., Willardson said. Fifty more positive cases have been reported since then.
Six residents were hospitalized and three others died from the virus. Two people have since been released from the hospital.
““Our residents, they’re not … they’re not our patients … they’re our family,” Director of Nursing Felicia O’Keefe said. “There are many we consider more like grandparents than patients. So, it’s definitely hitting us very hard 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 several long shifts asymptotic – not know that he was sick and unfortunately that’s the identified way that it got into our building,” O’Keefe confirmed.
Webster Public Health Director Jennifer Sullivan confirmed that the National Guard has responded to the facility.
“It is more than upsetting to see this happening at such a close-knit community within those walls,” Sullivan said in a statement. “They are continuing to provide the best care and attention to their residents during this devastating time and have support from the National Guard and the Rapid Response Team.”
Sullivan added that the facility has “gone above and beyond any and all procedures and protocol” since the start of the pandemic.
In November, the facility posted on Facebook that it had been COVID-free since the beginning of the pandemic.
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