Five nuns have reportedly died during a coronavirus outbreak in a single Wisconson convent specializing in care for older sisters with dementia.
Three of the nuns died within a week of each other earlier in April in the Lady of the Angels Convent, where four other staff members have fallen ill, according to a report in the New York Times.
The virus spread rapidly without staff knowing that the nuns had the virus until after they had passed away, claiming the lives of Sister Marie June Skender, Mary Regine Collins, Annelda Holtkamp, Mary Francele Sherburne and Bernadette Kelter.
They had come to the convent after decades of service around the Midwest.
The facility earlier in April had closed its doors to visitors and kept patients who tested positive in isolation, but it stopped testing nuns around then because it believed the nasal swab tests were too traumatizing for elderly nuns who were losing their cognitive functions, according to medical examiner records cited by the Times.
Officials told the paper the convent is now testing every resident, sometimes multiple times.
“The convent administrator and staff have been following, and continue to follow, all the guidelines and recommendations of the local health department, the facility’s infection control coordinator, and the sisters’ primary care physician,” said Michael O’Loughlin, a spokesman for the School Sisters of St. Francis, a co-sponsor of the convent.
“They are very aware that the convent’s residents, who are elderly and receive specialized memory care, are a vulnerable population, which is why the convent suspended all communal activities and enforced social distancing long before any of the residents tested positive for Covid-19.”
Darren Rausch, the director and health officer for the Greenfield Health Department, came to the defense of Our Lady of the Angels, saying it was in close contact with his office as the pandemic unfolded.
It’s definitely very challenging,” Mr. Rausch said, referring to caring for nuns with dementia. “They can’t always vocalize what’s going on.”
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