Nearly 70 veterans at a Massachusetts elder care facility have died from the coronavirus

• At least 68 residents at the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts have died from COVID-19.
• A further 82 residents and 81 employees at the 230-person care home have tested positive for COVID-19.
• Government officials are investigating whether or not residents have received proper medical care at the facility, though employees have said the home faced staff and supply shortages.
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Nearly 70 veterans at a Massachusetts elder care facility have died from the novel coronavirus, making it one of the deadliest outbreaks at a senior home in the US.

State officials told WWLP that 68 veterans who died recently at Holyoke Soldiers' Home had tested positive for the COVID-19.

A further 82 residents and 81 employees at the 230-person care home have tested positive for COVID-19, and federal officials are looking into whether or not proper medical care was carried out at the facility, the Associated Press reported.

"It's horrific," Edward Lapointe, whose father lives at the facility and had a mild case of the virus, told AP. "These guys never had a chance."

The home's superintendent, Bennett Walsh, told AP that state officials were made aware of the COVID-19 outbreak early on and that the facility has faced staffing shortages for years. Walsh has since been put on paid administrative leave.

Employees told WCVB that the facility's operators were unprepared for a coronavirus outbreak, and that staff was running out of supplies as more residents tested positive.

Joan Miller, a nurse at the home, told AP that part of the facility had been shut down because of staff shortages, and residents were living in close quarters because of it.

"Veterans were on top of each other," she said. "We didn't know who was positive and who was negative and then they grouped people together and that really exacerbated it even more."

Miller said the situation is "somewhat contained," but The Boston Globe reported that the number of residents in the facility decreased from 230 to 100 in just weeks.

The AP reported that there have been at least 13,762 deaths from COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes in the United States. The publication said the number is likely an underestimate.

Police in Andrew, New Jersey, found 17 bodies piled up at a nursing home that were linked to dozens of COVID-19-related deaths at the facility that houses Andover Subacute Rehabilitation Center I and II.

"I am heartbroken by the tragic news that several individuals have lost their lives in a coronavirus outbreak in at the Andover Subacute Rehabilitation Centers I and II," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said of the deaths in his daily coronavirus briefing on in mid-April. "I am also outraged that bodies of the dead were allowed to pile up in a makeshift morgue at the facility. New Jersey residents being cared for in our long-term care facilities deserve to be cared for with respect, compassion, and dignity."

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