Coronavirus Strikes 66 of 84 Residents of San Antonio Nursing Home

San Antonio, Texas, officials report that 66 of 84 residents of a local nursing home are infected with the Coronavirus (COVID-19). On Wednesday, the total in the facility sat at 14. One elderly man died earlier this week.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg broke the news on Thursday that 66 residents of the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center tested positive for COVID-19. He said the infection spread rapidly through the facility after 14 people tested positive only the day before, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

In addition to the 66 infected patients, 11 others received negative test results and two tests were inconclusive. One man in his 80s died earlier this week.

Officials reported that at least six employees also tested positive.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said, “That’s an incredibly high number” in response to the news.

The San Antonio newspaper reported the nursing home “has fallen short of federal standards on staffing levels and health inspections.” The facility was reportedly cited recently for “failing to adhere to proper infection protocols and medically neglecting a resident.”

The Coronavirus spread through a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, in the early days of the pandemic in the United States, Breitbart Texas reported in February. In a few days, at least 27 of the 108 residents tested positive–as did 52 of 180 staff members.

In about a week, the virus claimed the lives of at least 15 residents of the Life Care Center of Kirkland. During that period, 11 other residents died, but officials did not have test results confirming the COVID-19 virus as the cause.

The high rate of infection and subsequent deaths of nursing home residents from COVID-19 led state and federal officials to ban outside visitors from nursing homes across the country. At this time, it is not known how the Coronavirus got into the San Antonio facility.

“We’ve issued a requirement suspending all medically unnecessary visits to various places but in particular nursing homes,” President Donald Trump said in a Rose Garden press conference on March 14. “Anyone can be a carrier for the virus and risk transmission to older Americans and those with underlying health conditions, and those who are most at risk. They have not done very well. … Especially if they have a health problem, they have not done well. We must take all precautions and be responsible.”

Information available at the time of this article’s publication from Johns Hopkins University reveals that Texas has 5,073 confirmed cases of COVID-19 — 229 in Bexar County (San Antonio). Of the 77 deaths reported statewide, nine came from Bexar County, including the 80-year-old man at the San Antonio nursing home.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.