BOZRAH, Conn. (AP) — A coronavirus outbreak at a Colchester nursing home has prompted the deployment of a rapid response team from the state Department of Public Health.
Forty people, including 32 residents of the Harrington Court Nursing home have tested positive for the virus since last week.
Russell Melmed, director of the Chatham Health District, told the Hartford Courant that there have been no deaths so far, but that the outbreak is not contained.
The Health Department is conducting rapid tests of all residents and staff using one of its mobile testing units.
Harrington Court, which is owned by Genesis Health Care, houses more than 80 residents.
Some of the residents who tested positive have been moved to another Genesis facility, the Quinnipiac Valley Center in Wallingford, which has a wing dedicated to COVID-19 patients.
In other coronavirus related news:
MEALS ON WHEELS SUSPENDED
About 1,000 people in eastern Connecticut who rely on food from the Meals on Wheels program will not receive new deliveries for the next two weeks because of precautions being taken after a worker in one of the organization’s warehouses was exposed to the coronavirus.
The Thames Valley Council for Community Action said it has closed the warehouse through Oct. 13 because a staff member was exposed to someone who had tested positive for COVID-19.
The organization says it is asking its homebound customers in New London and Windham counties to use prepackaged meals that were provided as backup in the spring with instructions to save them in case deliveries had to be stopped during the pandemic.
Each customer was given 14 of the non-perishable meals in April, Dawn Cwynar, an executive assistant with the non-profit told the Norwich Bulletin.
Those who have already consumed their emergency stockpile will receive boxes of shelf-stable meals, which were kept in stock at the Bozrah facility in case of emergency.
The organization typically delivers hot meals daily during the week with frozen meals provided for the weekends.
“Everybody will get food,” Lee-Ann Gomes, the human services director for the city of Norwich told the newspaper. “No one will go hungry.”