Residents and staff at nursing homes in the city of Detroit will get tested for COVID-19 starting Wednesday.
The city has 27 nursing homes with 12 COVID-19 related deaths across them, and 14 of the homes have reported at least one case of COVID-19.
Mayor Mike Duggan says nursing homes house some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. He says faster testing is important to caring for residents and staff during this crisis.
“We are going to start to use the 15-minute Avid Lab test to aggressively go after infections at the nursing homes,” Duggan said.
The way it works is staff from the nursing homes will go to the testing site during the day to get tested.
But Duggan says residents from the nursing homes shouldn’t risk their safety to go out and get tested, instead he says Wayne State University medical students will go out to the nursing homes to test residents there.
“We’re going to do one nursing home a day, starting with the one with the most problems,” he said.
The city has more than 250 COVID-19 deaths total, and more than 5,820 cases. Duggan says each nursing home has already begun seeing which patients are in the most need of testing.
“The health department has been working very closely with the nursing homes to immediately isolate those individuals who are showing symptoms,” he said.
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