Photo: Belmont Manor
The number of residents with confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 keeps rising in Belmont, passing into triple digits with the town’s nursing homes continuing to get hit hard.
As of Monday, April 13, the state’s Department of Public Health has confirmed that 113 residents have confirmed cases of the virus, according to Wesley Chin, director of the Belmont Health Department, speaking before the Belmont Select Board on April 13. So far, 13 deaths have been connected to the virus.
In Massachusetts, there has been a total of 122,049 positive cases and 844 deaths as of April 13.
Approximately half of the positive COVID-19 cases and all the deaths in town have been residents of Belmont Manor, the 135-bed nursing home and rehabilitation center on Agassiz Avenue. Across the US, facilities such as Belmont Manor that treat or house older adults are now considered “an accelerator” of COVID-19, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said earlier this month.
Chin told the board the numbers of positive cases in town will continue to rise for foreseeable future.
“We are in the surge period,” Chin said, “so expect this number to continue to creep up pretty significantly over the next week to 10 days” which requires the continuation of social distance standards.
“It’s really important that people continue to keep vigilant and wear masks when out in public,” said Chin. And while the federal and state governments only recommends their use, “it really is something that is essential that people do especially in supermarkets, grocery stores, anywhere social distancing is difficult to do,” he said.
Select Board members said they collectively have seen people congregate around town, at the Cambridge Reservoir, around the perimeter of the Grove Street Park and walking on conservation land without regard to social distancing practices.
“People need to be serious about this,” said Adam Dash. “I think wearing a mask and keeping away from other people is a fair thing to ask at this point in time, especially when we heard [Chin] say we are in the thick of this thing.”
The number of confirmed cases in Belmont in March and April:
| March 11 | 1 |
| March 13 | 3 |
| March 27 | 10 |
| March 31 | 14 |
| April 7 | 56 |
| April 11 | 95 |
| April 13 | 113 |
I was a patient at this facility about a year ago. I am not surprised at the number of poor souls that have died or tested positive for the virus. The night time was a horror show. Naked woman running around at night and rough treatment of the elderly. Waking ninety six year old disoriented women at five in the morning that spent the next next hour screaming. I contracted a bowel infection a few days after I was admitted. The workers at night wear gloves but don’t change them . A little training would go a long way. I am retired R.N. and had worked for 40 years part time.as I had five children. Three weeks without a shower or help with a sponge bath was out of the question. I spoke up about what I saw and two male workers came to my bed side and one proceeded to ask what happen to my teeth and put his ungloved had into my mouth to feel my teeth. There were a couple of caring workers thank God.