Eight of 10 COVID-19 cases found in past 24 hours from Lihula care home
Of the 10 new COVID-19 cases reported by the Health Board (Terviseamet) in the past 24 hours, eight were in a care home in Lihula in western Estonia, bringing the total of people there who have contracted the virus to 14. The head of the care home was diagnosed the week before last.
"A total of 13 residents and one employee have been infected at this care home. Four people have been taken to Pärnu Hospital," Eike Kingsepp, the Health Board's media adviser, told ERR Monday.
Kingsepp noted that as the residents of the sick care home are listed in the population register in different parts of Estonia, they have been divided between different regions of Estonia in the general statistics.
Testing was performed at the home, the Lihula Südamekodu, after the head of the care home had given a positive result on Saturday, May 9.
It is not known where the nursing home manager may have picked up the virus, though she told regional daily Lääne Elu that on April 29 she had been to a medical institution in Tallinn which had recorded a case.
While care home residents are not permitted to leave the premises of their confinement until the emergency situation expires, likely on Sunday at midnight, and relatives are forbidden to visit, several such facilities have seen COVID-19 outbreaks during the current pandemic, including in Pärnu, Narva and on Saaremaa.
Of six people who have died from causes related to COVID-19 at the West Tallinn Central Hospital (LTKH), three of them are thought to have picked it up in the hospital itself.
Editor: Andrew Whyte