Pennsylvania nursing home presuming all 800 residents are infected with COVID-19

All 800 residents and staff of a Beaver County, Pennsylvania, nursing home are presumed to have the coronavirus, according to a KDKA-TV report Tuesday.

What are the details?

The Brighton Rehabilitation & Wellness Center says that all staff and patients will be treated as if they are infected with COVID-19 and are proceeding with such measures in order to protect all inside the facility, the station reported.

A union representative from the assisted living facility said at least 42 patients and 10 employees tested positive. At the time of this writing, five people from the facility have died, according to The Times.

The nursing home is directing all residents to isolate and treat symptoms.

A statement from the nursing facility read, "Thinking about the virus in this way allows us to be more protective of asymptomatic staff and residents."

"By presuming every staff member and resident may be positive and treating symptoms, not test results, we are doing what we believe every facility and every person in the nation should do," a follow-up statement continued. "We are not saying that every person in our facility — any more than every person on a cruise ship, who went to a certain party or who lives in New York City — is positive."

What else?

Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, said that seniors are at great risk of contracting COVID-19.

"Seniors living in long-term care living facilities ... are at great risk in relation to this pandemic of COVID-19," Levine said on Friday, according to the Times. "They're older, and older individuals are more likely to suffer more serious complications, and are more likely to have other medical conditions that could make them more vulnerable."

She added, "We're looking to contract with a company that will help us and serve as almost a nursing home SWAT team that could go out and help a nursing home that might be having difficulty in helping them with their infection control. We want to do everything we can to protect the health and safety of nursing home staff and nursing home residents."