11 tested positive at Wuhan retirement home

Eleven senior residents and a staff member at a retirement home in Wuhan – the city at the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak — tested positive for the virus and one of the seniors died, the city's Civil Affairs Bureau said late Friday.

Officials refuted claims that 11 were killed by the new virus at the retirement home.

The victim was identified as an 85-year-old woman named Hu, who has had hypertension for 30 years. She died Wednesday.

Another seven seniors and 12 staff members at the Social Welfare Institute of Wuhan were isolated at designated sites after showing possible symptoms of infection, the bureau said.

The institute, home about 460 seniors at the time, is located across from the Huanan Seafood market, where the deadly pathogen is believed to have emerged. The retirement home had been sealed off since Jan 21 as local authorities stepped up efforts to contain the outbreak.

The bureau said authorities will run nucleic acid tests — the primary method for confirming infections — for all seniors and their caregivers at the city's nursing facilities in an effort to halt spread of the virus among seniors.

The test kits will be first allocated to facilities with suspected cases. All residents will be tested by Saturday. Other facilities should conclude the tests before Feb 28, officials said.

The bureau stressed that the city's hospitals designated to treat novel coronavirus patients should receive the confirmed cases from the retirement home unconditionally, easing concerns that senior patients have to wait before being admitted to crowded hospitals.

It also called for efforts to subsidize the city's caregivers at nursing facilities and recruit additional help to provided needed help to seniors.