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Two more COVID-19 deaths connected to Essex Center facility

ELIZABETHTOWN — Two more Essex Center patients have died from COVID-19.

The two new deaths were reported by the Essex County Public Health Department on Thursday, Aug. 20, bringing the total number of deaths connected to the new coronavirus cluster to three this week.

The deaths reported by the department include one Essex County resident who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 since Aug. 17, and a Clinton County resident, who was discharged from Essex Center on Aug. 17 to return home. That resident later developed symptoms and died from COVID-19.

Essex County reported its first COVID-19 fatality on Tuesday, spurring a testing spree at the Essex Center in Elizabethtown that uncovered another 24 positive cases on Wednesday.

An Essex Center employee was the first to test positive for COVID-19 on July 27. By July 30, the county Health Department reported zero active cases of COVID-19. Center staff have been equipped with personal protective equipment since March, and officials at the nursing home had hoped that the precautions would mitigate spread, the Post-Star reported Wednesday. But the virus spread anyway.

Following the first fatality on Tuesday, a person who had entered the nursing home for emergency medical care, all other residents were tested. Center staff are tested once a week.

The county Health Department provided swabs to the nursing home for more testing on Thursday, and those results are expected to come on Friday, according to the department.

The Essex Center has moved positive residents into a different part of the building, and created a COVID-19-only section to be staffed by a separate set of employees. The county Health Department said “numerous steps” have been taken to prevent more COVID-19 cases.

Essex County has seen a total of 110 positive cases of COVID-19 since March, 94 of those test-confirmed and 16 suspected.

Nursing home residents are among the highest-risk populations amid the coronavirus pandemic. As of Aug. 13, more than 402,000 people at some 17,000 facilities across the country have been infected by the coronavirus, the New York Times reported last week. At least 68,000 people have died, accounting for roughly 41% of total COVID-19 deaths in the United States.

The county Health Department is expected to host a live event on Facebook at 2 p.m. on Friday to talk about the Essex Center coronavirus cluster and answer questions.

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