HOLYOKE — COVID-19 has re-emerged at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, where a veteran resident who had recovered from the disease has again tested positive.
State officials have ceased visitation to the facility after a veteran resident who was clinically recovered from the coronavirus disease started experiencing symptoms again on Monday. The veteran was transferred to a nearby hospital for treatment and tested positive, according to a statement from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
“The Home has been implementing protocols for clinically recovered individuals, who may test positive even after they are clinically recovered,” EOHHS spokesperson Brooke Karanovich said in the statement. “The Home is immediately taking necessary precautions and is performing full-house testing with support from the Massachusetts National Guard, and temporarily suspending all visitation.”
The Soldiers’ Home was the site of one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks in the country. At least 76 people veteran residents died after contracting the virus, and more than 80 other residents and more than 80 employees tested positive.
A lawyer hired by Gov. Charlie Baker to investigate the outbreak found that Soldiers’ Home leadership made “substantial errors” that likely contributed to the death toll at the facility, that Superintendent Bennett Walsh “was not qualified to manage a long-term care facility,” and that high-ranking Baker administration officials failed to act decisively when informed of the developing crisis.
In particular, a 174-page report criticized the combining of two already crowded dementia units as resulting in conditions that staff described as “a nightmare,” “total pandemonium” and resembling “a war zone.” Walsh’s attorney, however, has disputed those claims, saying that his client did his best under the circumstances and that state officials did not adequately react to the information Walsh was providing them.
Earlier this month, the estate of a Soldiers’ Home resident who died after contracting COVID-19 filed a class-action lawsuit against Walsh and other former employees and officials.
The state has been reporting almost daily the status of the infection inside the home, and for more than a month has reported no new cases or coronavirus-related deaths at the facility or at Holyoke Medical Center, where 25 veterans are in a dedicated skilled nursing unit.
The state has been allowing for outdoor visitation of Soldiers’ Home residents after infections were brought under control in the facility earlier this summer. As of July 24, 581 visits had taken place, with 20 visitation slots being offered each week, according to an email from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Those visits have now ended, however. In its statement Tuesday, the state agency said that “full-house onsite testing” was conducted Monday and Tuesday for residents and staff. The resident who tested positive on Monday lived on a unit for clinically recovered patients, the state said, adding that all residents on that unit are being quarantined.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.