More Than 55 Cornavirus Deaths At Beverly Nursing Homes

BEVERLY, MA — A total of 56 people have died after contracting the coronavirus at three nursing homes located in Beverly, according to data released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The data does not indicate whether people contracted the coronavirus at the facilities or were admitted after testing positive for COVID-19. It was the first time the state has released individual mortality statistics for nursing homes located in Massachusetts. A breakdown of the information released in Wednesday's report follows:

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CareOne at Essex Park said that it had not completed compiling datasets for its facility in Beverly but that they were similar to the 77 percent recovery rate at its Peabody facility. There are currently 39 active COVID-19 cases at CareOne at Essex Park, including patients who had the virus when they were admitted.

"In our experience, admission of COVID-positive patients provides a clear explanation why some nursing homes report larger volumes of coronavirus cases, more virus-related deaths, and most importantly, higher numbers of patient recoveries. For example, CareOne’s internal information shows COVID-positive admissions account for a significant number of coronavirus-related deaths at our Massachusetts center, even with less than half of facilities having tabulated that data," CareOne said. "It is unfortunate that data published by the state did not provide full context. Transparency is incredibly important, but carries an obligation to present statistics in a manner that fully informs the public."

Patch has asked the other two Beverly nursing homes mentioned in the report for comment and will update this story when we hear back from them.

As of May 19, there had been a total of 75 reported coronavirus-related deaths in Beverly. Last week, all Beverly nursing home was listed as "in adherence" in the first round of bi-weekly state inspections by the state to measure how long-term care facilities were handling coronavirus prevention.

Long-term care facilities account for 4,041, or 62.58 percent, of the state's 6,457 reported coronavirus-related deaths. Of the states 94,220 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Wednesday, 20,267, or 21.5 percent, were either patients or workers in long-term care facilities.

Read the full report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

More Coronavirus Coverage On Massachusetts Patch:

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• Coronavirus Case Counts For Every Massachusetts Town (Updated May 20)

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).