(Updated) Osborn Home Reports COVID-19 Fatalities; County Moves to Test All Nursing Homes

(Updated Wednesday)

COVID-19 fatality data has become available for The Osborn Home in Rye for the first time. The data, collected and published by the State, shows three (3) confirmed COVID-19 fatalities and five (5) presumed COVID-19 deaths as of May 3rd.

Previously, reporting by individual nursing homes was not made available from the State. Further, any fatality data from nursing homes does not include patients that were transferred to a hospital before passing away. Impacting the fatality statistics from The Osborn is the March 25th mandate from the State Department of Health that all skilled nursing centers admit COVID-19 patients from area hospitals to reduce overcrowding caused by the pandemic.

“In response to this mandate, The Osborn Pavilion created an isolation unit for COVID-19 patients to protect against the spread of infection to our existing nursing home residents,” Richard Sgaglio, vice president of The Osborn told MyRye.com.

“The (State) report does not distinguish between Osborn residents (people who lived at The Osborn since before the pandemic) and patients who have been admitted to The Pavilion’s isolation unit from area hospitals after treatment for COVID-19 (non-Osborn residents, people who lived in the greater Westchester and Fairfield areas),” continued Sgaglio.

“Some of the non-Osborn residents (COVID-19 patients) admitted to The Pavilion from area hospitals unfortunately passed away after only a short time at The Osborn and are included in the total numbers shown for The Osborn in the DOH report. The Osborn is saddened by each and every loss during this pandemic and keeps all those affected by it in our thoughts and prayers.”

There is no data available from Rye Manor or Vienna Senior Housing as they are both subsidized housing and not nursing or assisted care. The county did start testing all nursing home residents for COVID-19 on Monday and Rye Guy and Westchester County Boss George Latimer has stated he hopes the testing effort will be extended to senior citizen subsidized housing and group homes. If that happens, presumably that data will also be made available.

The timing of the COVID-19 testing in nursing homes is unclear. Asked about this on Tuesday, a county spokesperson told MyRye.com “plans are still being fleshed out.”

See the full state list of nursing home and assisted care facility COVID-19 fatalities.