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The Westchester County Department of Health is ramping up efforts in testing at nursing homes, where there has been among the highest rates of infection, even as the rest of the state has begun stabilizing after being punched in the mouth by the virus.
Latimer said that the endeavor would be a “pretty big task,” but the county still intends to test all nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Patients who test positive for the virus will be isolated at the home, and after two weeks, the county will reassess whether the virus continued to spread throughout the home or not.
During his daily Zoom COVID-19 briefing, Latimer said that “wherever there are a combination of people who are in some way, shape or form part of the vulnerable population we want to test them and find out if they do have COVID or they don’t have COVID.”
According to Latimer, there is no timetable for when testing will be complete.
The New York State Department of Health said that as of Monday, May 4, there have been 19,415 COVID-19 deaths, 16,383 of whom were over the age of 60. In Westchester, there are 237 nursing homes, and 47 adult care facilities, where there have been 284 reported deaths. There have been 3,733 fatalities in nursing homes and assisting living facilities statewide.
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