More Than 100 Cornavirus Deaths At Peabody Nursing Homes

PEABODY, MA — More than 100 people have died after contracting the coronavirus at four nursing homes located in Peabody, 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 Peabody said the state data does not account for the number of patients who already had tested positive before they were admitted. CareOne said its Peabody facility has a 77 percent COVID-19 recovery rate and currently has just one active coronavirus case.

"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 three Peabody nursing homes names in the report for comment and will update this story when we hear back from them.

As of Monday, there had been a total of 133 reported coronavirus-related deaths in Peabody. Last week, all but one Peabody 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.

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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).