Two senior citizens are today listed in critical condition in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit fighting for their lives battling the deadly coronavirus.
Bermuda Real understands that one of the patients is an 80-year-old man, who reportedly was on that illfated 31-day cruise, that left local passengers desperate to find a way home.
He was hospitalised shortly after he returned to the island with others on that cruise.
The other patient is a rest home resident, a 66-year-old man whose condition deteriorated after he developed a fever and cough at the Matilda Smith Williams nursing home in Devonshire on Sunday.
He was admitted to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on Monday, where he was put on oxygen to help him breathe.
Premier David Burt confirmed on Thursday that he had been “informed of possible cases at nursing homes”.
“Earlier this week, I directed the Ministry of Health to have all residents and staff in affected nursing homes be tested. We have an aggressive testing regime and we will test all possible cases, to ensure we break any chain of transmission.
“We have had four deaths to date and I will do everything in my power to minimise future deaths,” he said.
This after the Minister of Health, Kim Wilson declined to comment on whether COVID-19 had surfaced in local rest homes earlier.
Speaking at the latest news conference held on Thursday, she said it would be “totally inappropriate for me to comment, as far as providing information that might or might not identify” the latest people to contract COVID-19.
She also stated: “We have been working with rest homes, because we appreciate that is our most vulnerable population.”
And she noted that it was “several weeks” since visits to local rest homes were banned, except for terminal cases.
The Health Ministry is scheduled to provide an update later today.
The next news conference will be held on Monday.
- Top Feature Photo Courtesy of TNN
