POUGHKEEPSIE – Following last week’s announcement that Dutchess County would seek COVID-19 testing for every nursing home resident in the county, the Department of Behavioral & Community Health has secured 3,600 tests, enough to test every resident in the 13 nursing home facility in the county. The first round of testing began last week at Wingate at Beacon and the Pines at Poughkeepsie, with additional nursing homes beginning testing this week.
As a result of the county’s efforts:
- 104 residents were tested at Wingate at Beacon, with 13 new cases of COVID-19 identified;
- 157 residents were tested at The Pines at Poughkeepsie with six new cases of COVID-19 identified.
The majority of these 19 new cases of COVID-19 were asymptomatic and were only identified because of the county’s testing initiative. The families of these residents were notified immediately, and the COVID-19 positive residents have been moved to secluded and secure areas of each facility to be cared for.
“Throughout this pandemic, our number one priority has been protecting the health and well-being of all our residents. We have been proactive and aggressive in our approach to containing the spread of coronavirus,” said County Executive Marcus Molinaro. “When our public health experts identified a gap in that protection with regards to nursing homes, we moved quickly and effectively to acquire personal protection equipment (PPE) and ample testing.”
County public health staff is currently working with staff at the remaining 11 facilities to plan and prepare to safely test every individual. Diagnostic kits are being assembled, packaged with appropriate quantity of PPE, and are being delivered to each remaining facility. Administration of tests to all residents is expected to be completed by the end of next week.
