Death of fourth resident of Springfield assisted living facility linked to COVID-19
A fourth resident from a Springfield assisted living facility has died of the coronavirus.
The Springfield-Greene County Health Department announced the latest death at the Morningside of Springfield East facility at a Friday afternoon news briefing. The woman was in her 90s.
Her death was described as “epi-linked,” which refers to illness in an individual that has not been confirmed by a lab test. But a connection to another case and symptoms are determined to be evidence of COVID-19, the health department said.
“She passed away before any residents were even tested at Morningside,” said Katie Towns, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. “We’d like to express our condolences to the family.”
Towns said she didn’t know when the woman passed away.
In total, eight cases are connected to Morningside with seven positive tests. Three residents — women ranging in age from their 70s to 90s — died earlier this week. Another four are hospitalized, which is an increase of two residents since information was last shared. Their conditions were not released.
Towns also announced at the briefing that overall cases of the virus in Greene County had jumped to 41 from the previous 25.
“We are not surprised to see this,” Towns said, “as we have begun to see test results coming back from our efforts to increase capacity for testing over the past few weeks.”
The department is now including other cases determined to be epi-linked, Towns said. That can include close family contacts who have similar symptoms to people who tested positive for the virus.
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 3:58 PM.
