A nursing home in Beaver, Pennsylvania is no longer reporting new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and is now presuming that all 450 residents and 300 staff members may be infected with the virus.
Brighton Rehabilitation & Wellness Center announced its decision Monday in a statement obtained by multiple outlets. The nursing home has not immediately responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“Upon consultation with the Department of Health, and consistent with practices of facilities on the cutting edge of prevention and treatment, we are beginning to shift away from counting test results, and presuming all staff and residents may be positive,” the statement read. “Thinking about the virus in this way allows us to be more protective of asymptomatic staff and residents.”
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the nursing home stopped reporting new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday as the numbers continued to rise.
Since then, at least 42 of the 450 patients in the home have tested positive, including 10 of the 300 employees, and three have died of the virus, local news station KDKA reported.
A resident’s companion told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that they were not surprised there was an outbreak at Brighton Rehabilitation.
“That place is terrible,” said the companion, who remained anonymous. “It’s filthy, dirty.”
The companion continued on to say that the nursing home has not shared how the outbreak began. “When you ask those kinds of questions, [the staff] just don’t answer,” they said.
According to KDKA, the Beaver County coroner said that at least 13 people in the county have died from coronavirus as of Monday.
Pennsylvania has at least 14,739 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 240 deaths as of Wednesday morning, according to the New York Times database.
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