17 bodies found at New Jersey nursing home hit by coronavirus after anonymous tip
An anonymous tip led authorities to one of New Jersey's largest nursing home, where they were shocked to find 17 bodies in the facility's morgue.
Employees at the Andover Subacute and Rehab Center II asked responding officers for assistance with the bodies.
"The staff was clearly overwhelmed and probably short-staffed," Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson, one of the responding officers, told CNN. "The residents were expiring. Why? We're not sure if it's from COVID-19 or from other diseases, but we tried our best to ease the burden."
The US has reported nearly 30,000 deaths from COVID-19 and nursing homes have been some of the most vulnerable targets. Many facilities have barred visitors from outside to prevent infections and their staff is doing everything they can to treat patients if the virus spreads internally. That said, it is still unclear if coronavirus was the cause of the deaths over at Andover Subacute.
As authorities arrived at the facility Monday, they found all 17 bodies in bags with tags identifying each of the deceased. According to The New York Times, the morgue was designed to accommodate no more than four people.
While four bodies were left at the nursing home morgue, the other 13 were loaded on to a refrigerated truck to Newton Medical Center. Details identifying the victims are yet to be released by authorities. Police Chief Danielson recalled how he was shocked to see so many bodies at once.
"It is by far one of the most bodies at one time that I've experienced in terms of a nursing home. Based upon the pandemic and the numbers we saw coming out of the facility, I don't know if I'm necessarily shocked about that. It's an unfortunate situation altogether," Danielson said.
Around 68 deaths have been linked to the facility and the Andover Subacute and Rehab Centers I, officials told The Times. According to county health records shared Wednesday with a federal official, 76 of the patients who remain at the homes have tested positive for the coronavirus. Meanwhile, 41 staff members are sick with COVID-19, the disease caused by the deadly contagion.
Having said that, Andover Subacute is not the only nursing home in crisis. A number of facilities in the New York region are struggling with staff shortages and have reported an increasing number of coronavirus cases and deaths at an unprecedented speed.
However, with 2,543 licensed beds, Andover Subacute is undoubtedly one of the biggest facilities in the state. The facility received five heath citations and was rated "much below average" by Medicare following a health inspection in March.
The risk of coronavirus spread is alarming to family members of the residents at these homes, and they are now turning to social media and approaching local congressmen desperate for answers.
Democrat Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who got the call on Saturday asking for body bags, said the primary "challenge we’re having with all of these nursing homes, is once it spreads, it’s like a wildfire."
“It’s very hard to stop it," he bemoaned.