City-Run Nursing Home Has More Than 70 Coronavirus Cases: Report

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Dozens of long-term residents of a city-run nursing facility on Roosevelt Island have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus after the hospital facility was used to treat virus patients, according to reports.

Seventy-three residents of NYC Health & Hospitals' Coler facility have tested positive for coronavirus, public hospital officials told the New York Post. The nursing facility, located on the north end of Roosevelt Island, had 540 total residents, according to the report.

Residents of the Coler facility told patient advocates that the city's decision to add coronavirus hospital beds to previously vacant wings of the Roosevelt Island Medical Center — located in the same facility as Coler — put the nursing care patients at risk.

"How many people has to get sick and die before someone actually steps in and does something? Who will be held responsible for the mayor’s actions bringing COVID patients into Coler," read a letter to advocacy group Open Doors, which was acquired by the Post.

NYC Health & Hospitals officials said that precautions were taken to ensure that coronavirus patients treated at the Roosevelt Island Medical Center had no contact with Coler patients. Both healthcare facilities maintained separate staffs, public hospital officials told the Post.

Read the full NY Post report here.