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South Bend Nursing Home Houses Over 60 Coronavirus Cases

By Jack H. FarnbauchMay 2, 2020

The St. Joseph County long-term care facility with a coronavirus outbreak has reported that 54 patients and seven employees have tested positive, according to a county health official. Several families have told media sources that the facility is Cardinal Nursing and Rehabilitation in South Bend.

A third facility patient died from the virus over the weekend, said Dr. Mark Fox, the county’s deputy health officer. The long-term care facility has tested all of its roughly 100 patients, Fox said, but he did not know how many employees have been tested.

Fox said the facility has told him that it issued a news release identifying itself and describing what it is doing to keep residents safe. Geri Washington says her father is one of the Cardinal residents who died from COVID-19. She echoed complaints that other family members have relayed to media sources, saying she’s not happy with how Cardinal communicated with her about her father, 77-year-old Willie Washington, who had Alzheimer’s. He died on Sunday, April 12.

Willie Washington was sent to Cardinal in late February to learn to walk again after suffering a stroke. Amid the coronavirus outbreak at Cardinal, Geri Washington said, the family initially was told that her father “was doing good.”

“The next thing you know, we got a phone call Sunday morning saying he was pronounced dead at 9:22,” she said.

Read more about South Bend nursing home COVID cases.