The company that manages a Williamstown, Massachusetts nursing home says 10 residents have now died after testing positive for COVID-19. Five residents at another facility it manages in Great Barrington are positive for coronavirus too.
Berkshire Healthcare manages Williamstown Commons and the Fairview Commons facility in Great Barrington. In addition to the 10 residents who have died from coronavirus, 35 of some 130 occupants have tested positive. The remaining residents were tested Monday.
Meanwhile, at Fairview Commons, five of 118 residents are positive.
Berkshire Healthcare Vice President of Communications Lisa Gaudet says the residents were tested as part of a Massachusetts Department of Public Health plan to use the center for recovering COVID-19 patients.
“The residents, when they were swabbed on Friday, we had no one who was symptomatic, and yet what we’re seeing is that even asymptomatic individuals can have the virus,” she told WAMC.
As with Williamstown Commons, positive Fairview Commons residents are separated from the rest of the population. Berkshire Healthcare reported its first case of COVID-19 in Williamstown on March 24th.