Latest Mercer Co. Nursing Home Coronavirus Deaths

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — As New Jersey begins to crack down on nursing homes and long-term care facilities, deaths related to the new coronavirus continue to rise in Mercer County.

The state has a dashboard set up that tracks the number of cases statewide, including how many cases and fatalities involve long-term care facilities. The latest in Mercer County show 1,080 cases are spread among the 22 impacted facilities. Last week, only 20 long-term care facilities had reported infections. There have been 207 deaths at these facilities as reported by the New Jersey Department of Health on Wednesday. Last week the report had 132.

The largest outbreak in Mercer County remains at Water's Edge Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Trenton. The report shows 146 cases, up from 135 were logged there last week. Out of those there were 26 deaths, up from 24.

However, the highest death toll is now at Hamilton Continuing Care in Hamilton with 28 and 100 cases.

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Here are the facilities in Mercer County that have patients positive for the coronavirus, followed by the deaths (in parentheses) that have happened at those facilities. The list of facilities was provided by the state Department of Health; there may be discrepancies due to a delay in communications between the facilities and the state:

• Hamilton Continuing Care, Hamilton: 100 (28)
• Water's Edge Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Trenton: 146 (26)
• Clover Meadows Healthcare and Rehab Center, Lawrence: 65 (17)
• Providence Nursing and Rehab, Trenton: 60 (16)
• Preferred Care at Mercer, Ewing: 83 (13)
• Artis Senior Living Princeton Junction, West Windsor: 38 (11)
• CareOne Hamilton, Hamilton: 47 (10)
• Hamilton Grove, Hamilton: 74 (10)
• Mercerville Center, Hamilton: 78 (9)
• Bear Creek Assisted Living, West Windsor: 40 (8)
• Princeton Care Center, Princeton: 33 (6)
• Meadow Lakes East Windsor, East Windsor: 44 (6)
• Greenwood House, Ewing: 35 (6)
• Brookdale Hamilton, Hamilton: 48 (4)
• Brandywine Living at Pennington, Pennington: 14 (4)
• Homestead at Hamilton, Hamilton: 12 (4)
• St. Josephs Morris Hall, Lawrence: 57 (4)
• Royal Health Gate Nursing Home, Trenton: 22 (3)
• Preferred Care at Hamilton, Hamilton: 6 (1)
• Acorn Glen, Princeton: 13 (1)
• St. Lawrence Rehab Center, Lawrence: 22 (0)
• Rose Hill Assisted Living, Robbinsville: 4 (0)

Statewide, 24,874 cases of the coronavirus have been identified at 513 long-term care facilities. There have been 4,556 deaths at these facilities.

A big part of the nursing home and long-term care problem is that, health officials have acknowledged, the numbers are probably higher – maybe even way higher – than reported.

Murphy said his administration has been leading reviews of long-term care facilities and enforcing measures to protect residents and staff. Read More: NJ Clamps Down On Nursing Homes As Coronavirus Deaths Spiral Up

Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said her department has already curtailed visitation, enforced the notification of outbreaks and required people to wear masks. Now they've also:

• Worked with the National Guard to provide "some efforts" in assisting the facilities, although they weren't specified.
• Conducted an inspection of 60 facilities in April to check for the availability of personal protective equipment, the quality of infection control and staffing levels, among other criteria.
• Directed at least four sites to develop "directed plans of correction" after the inspections, and several facilities have to bring in consultants to assist. She didn't identify the facilities.

Read more: NJ Coronavirus Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

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