A Massachusetts veterans home under investigation for its response to the coronavirus pandemic lost 19 more residents to the virus in the past eight days, increasing the death toll to 47, state officials said Friday.
Fifty-six residents of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in total have died – seven of those residents tested negative for the virus and one test is unknown. Additionally, 92 veteran residents and 81 employees have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Health officials on April 9 reported 32 residents had died since March, with 28 of them having tested positive for Covid-19.
The veterans home has struggled with systemic issues for years, staffers and a union representative told CNN. They said that chronic short staffing, a lack of access to personal protective equipment, and the home’s initial policy of housing veterans who had tested positive for coronavirus in tight quarters with other residents contributed to the outbreak at the home. The National Guard is now assisting at the home.
Multiple investigations have been opened into the home’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. The superintendent of the home was placed on leave in late March, and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced his office had hired an independent investigator. The state’s attorney general announced her own investigation, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts will also investigate in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week that the state is investigating reports that the home was late in reporting Covid-19 fatalities to the state.
“We’ve got to get a handle on this,” Healy said. “Obviously, something went terribly wrong. I am not going to prejudge anything. We’ll go where the facts take us. We have to for the sake of these families and honor the men who served our country. We need to get to the bottom of this.”
