Latest deaths among long-term care facility residents
LAPEER COUNTY — The Health Department reports that Lapeer County has seen just four new COVID-19 cases in the past week but three more residents have died from complications of the disease. As of Monday, May 11, Lapeer’s case count totaled 176 with 30 deaths. They’re also tracking nine “probable” cases.
According to those statistics, the four new confirmed cases are among the general public but all three deaths within the past week were among residents of long-term care facilities in the county. As has been the case for several weeks, the majority of Lapeer County’s deaths—20 of the current 30—are among nursing home patients.
The county recorded two days in the past week–Friday and Saturday–where both the new case and death counts remained at zero. Since May 5, the county hasn’t registered more than one new case per day. Haskins said it’s evidence that social distancing and other precautions are working, plus more test results are turning up negative.
“Yes, the case count has slowed considerably, primarily due to folks staying home, wearing masks, and observing other precautions,” Haskins said.
“We have had a significant number of negative test results come in over the past week or two. Remember, also, that in the early days, due to low number of test supplies/tests available, those being tested were the very ill. Since testing has opened up to allow for more people with milder symptoms or exposure histories, we’ve seen more negative tests.”
Haskins warns that receiving a negative test result shouldn’t cause anyone to relax their guard.
“You can test negative one day and positive a day or two later if you had been exposed to the virus in the meantime. You still need to take care to follow the steps to reduce your risk of exposure, and to reduce the risk that you may expose someone else,” she said.
