Chapel Hill Review

An Orange County rehabilitation and nursing center has seen a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, Gov. Roy Cooper said on April 8, noting that 60 patients and workers were diagnosed, the News & Observer reported.

Of those patients, seven were at Duke University Hospital, and two of them have died, the publication reported.

PruittHealth-Carolina Point launched a website to help patients' families stay informed about the number of coronavirus cases, the publication reported. PruittHealth has more than 180 locations in the US.

Its Emergency Preparedness Page provides regular updates about its locations across the U.S. PruittHealth operation. The facility is one of the two long-term care facilities in Orange County that have coronavirus cases. The other, Signature HealthCARE at Chapel Hill, is the source of three people who tested positive to be hospitalized.

"As more patients are tested, we anticipate seeing an initial increase in presumptive positive tests, similar to what we see across the nation as additional testing centers open to the public," Neil L. Pruitt Jr., chairman and CEO of PruittHealth, said in a statement on April 14. "These presumptive positive results do not necessarily mean patients are experiencing symptoms, but we felt strongly that this is exactly the kind of information families and our communities would want to know."

The company has experienced a rise in the number of calls from patients’ families, according to the statement, and as a result, launched the Emergency Operations Center. With this portal, patients have access to clinicians at all hours. More than 400 calls are received daily. Most of the calls are from concerned family members who would like to have a video call with their loved ones. The number to call is 855-742-5983. 

In March, Cooper limited visitors to long-term care facilities to exclusively those facing end-of-life situations.