Two outbreaks of COVID-19 have sickened more than 120 people in two different nursing homes in San Antonio and Texas City.
KPRC-TV in Houston is reporting Galveston County health officials said Friday "that there are 83 residents and employees of a Texas City senior living facility who have tested positive for coronavirus Friday, which is up from 13 reported Thursday at the same facility."
Health officials tested 146 residents and staffers at The Resort at Texas City; some results are still pending.
It is not clear if anyone living or working at the facility has died. A news conference is expected to reveal more information Friday afternoon.
In San Antonio, a coronavirus outbreak at a nursing home has infected more than 60 residents, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Friday, as the city ordered nursing home operators to stop allowing staff to split their time between several locations.
At least eight staff members have tested positive at the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. San Antonio health officials raised new concerns about infections being spread by employees who worked at multiple facilities, although they couldn't confirm that had happened.
One resident who had COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, has died. Of the 84 residents at the nursing home, 67 have tested positive, and the mayor said they were scrambling to locate and test more than 50 other staff members who worked at the facility.
"If San Antonio needed a wake-up call about the seriousness of COVID-19 to our community, this is it," Nirenberg told reporters.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause pneumonia. The World Health Organization said this week that 95% of the deaths in Europe were of people over 60.
Nursing homes across the U.S. have been in lockdown for weeks under federal orders to protect their frail, elderly residents from the virus. But a wave of deadly outbreaks nearly every day since suggests that the measures including a ban on visits and daily health screenings of staffers either came too late or were not rigorous enough.
Recent outbreaks in Tennessee, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland have pushed the death toll at the nation's nursing homes to at least 450.
Texas has more than 5,300 cases and at least 90 related deaths, according to state health officials.
Coronavirus Cases in Texas
Locations on the map are approximate county locations and are not intended to identify where any infected people live.
Case data was pulled from a variety of sources including county health departments and the Texas Department of State Health Services.
