Coronavirus Update: Nursing Home Workers 'Terrified' About Bringing Virus Home
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — There is a growing concern about the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes in the tri-state and all over the country.
COVID-19 has impacted everyone in some way, but Long Island nursing home worker Bianca Thompson feels the effects of this deadly virus at home and at work.
Every day, she puts on her personal protective equipment, not just to keep residents safe, but to keep her own family safe.
"I'm a 32-year-old mother of two, two little girls that are home from school, obviously, and I'm terrified of of bringing the virus home to them," said Thompson in an interview with CBS2's Kevin Rincon.
Supplies are running low at the nursing home where she works, and that's left people like Thompson anxious. She's been self-isolating in her own home.
"I come in, strip down to the bare, hop in the shower, throw my clothes in the washing machine and into the spare room I go. Dinner is brought to me, plates are taken away, I stay inside," she said.
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The problem is widespread.
At Woodcrest, a nursing home in New Milford, New Jersey, five people have died from COVID-19 and almost two dozen others have tested positive for the virus. In Woodbridge, New Jersey, at St. Joseph's Nursing Home, four residents died this week and they've had over 90 positive tests.
Meanwhile at ArchCare in Manhattan, there have been hundreds of of residents who've tested positive.
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Nursing workers are represented by 1199SEIU. Its executive vice president Milly Silva says they're on the brink of running out of supplies.
"I think in New York and New Jersey you're talking about days," she said.
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Like many others, Silva is calling on the federal government to chip in and help coordinate distribution.
"We also have to be mindful that there are thousands of nursing home workers in New York, New Jersey, all over the country who need that same PPE," she said.
Nursing home workers have been reusing a lot of their supplies, and in some cases, they're getting creative, using household items like garbage bags as gowns.
