Nursing homes have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and the city of Stamford has made arrangements to test asymptomatic healthcare workers at nursing homes, including Cassena Care, Edgehill Health Center, Long Ridge Post-Acute Care, St. Camillus Center and The Villa, as well as assisted care facilities across the city.
“This testing is part of the City’s larger initiative to provide testing for essential workers on the frontlines fighting this virus,” Stamford Mayor David Martin said in a statement. “Workers at these institutions take care of the most vulnerable residents in our community. This expansion of testing will not only help protect these workers and their families, it will also help protect the residents and their families.”
Quest Diagnostics and Sema4 Labs will process the nasal swabs and staff member will get results within 48 hours.
The mayor said each institution will manage testing of its own employees and provide results to the City of Stamford.
Stamford has more than 90 nursing home patients with COVID-19 while the state’s total is over 1,713 patients across Connecticut, according to the mayor.
The mayor’s office said residents over 70 make up around 15 percent of all reported positive cases of COVID-19 in Stamford but make up roughly 78 percent of COVID-19-related deaths.
He said the number of employees in nursing homes and assisted care facilities who that have contracted this disease is not known.
