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A Co Laois nursing home battling a coronavirus outbreak has said that three residents infected with the disease have died and a fourth has been hospitalized with Covid-19.
A spokeswoman for Kilminchy Lodge Nursing Home in Portlaoise confirmed the deaths of three residents related to Covid-19. Two died in the house and a third in the Portlaoise hospital.
The nursing home said there are two other residents at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise, one of whom is Covid positive and the second does not have the disease.
The spokeswoman said that no other residents or staff had contracted the virus since last week when they initially reported 31 cases of Covid-19, with 21 residents and 10 staff members testing positive.
Residents at the nursing home are being isolated and the facility is closed to visitors in accordance with Level 3 restrictions introduced last week to try to suppress the growing number of infections.
The residence, which is owned by the private nursing home operator Brindley Healthcare, has a capacity for 52 residents.
He is working with public health officials from HSE and the health services regulator, the Health Information and Quality Authority, to manage the outbreak.
The HSE said last Friday that there were 10 outbreaks in nursing homes during the previous week with 68 cases of Covid-19. This compares to five outbreaks in the week through September 26.
The state’s medical director, Dr. Tony Holohan, warned that if community transmission of the virus is not reduced, it will not be possible to “keep this out of nursing homes.”
Nursing home residents account for more than half of the 1,826 deaths from the virus since the first outbreak was reported at a care facility in mid-March.
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