Detroit nursing homes continue to fight COVID-19: 'this is where this war is going'

(FOX 2) - Armed with more PPE and increased testing, Detroit nursing homes continue to the battle the coronavirus as the city finishes up testing all facilities. 

With so many medically vulnerable people affected in nursing homes, the city ramped up efforts in order to get every resident and staff member tested.

Mayor Mike Duggan announced April 13 that the city would start using instant COVID-19 tests in nursing homes. While a normal test may take several days, these tests from Abbott Laboratories return results in as little as five minutes. Wayne State students are working overnight to run these tests.

As of Wednesday, the city has administered 1,145 COVID-19 tests at 21 of the city’s 26 nursing homes, identifying 357 cases with a 26% infection rate, according to Denise Fair, Chief Public Health Officer of the Detroit Health Department. There have been 129 deaths. 

"There are so many COVID-19 positive people in our community who aren't showing symptoms that it was virtually impossible to seperate in a nursing home setting, the infectious from the non-infectious. You had no way of knowing without a test that probobaly wouldn't come back for five or six days," Duggan said. "Now that we've been able to go through and basically in 10 days, test all 2,000 people, we are seeing nursing homes do what we had hoped -- setting up seperate COVID-19 areas, isolating patients the way they should."

RELATED: Patients, staff at nursing homes hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic - here are their stories

Fair said they expect to have testing finished by the end of the work day Thursday. The next step will be looking at long-term health care facilities.

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control provided four clinicians for two weeks to help Detroit in the fight against COVID-19. Fair said on Wednesday, they performed sight checks at nursing home facilities. 

Mohammed Qazi, President and CEO of Ciena Healthcare, which operates nursing homes across Michigan including seven in Detroit alone, said he was thankful when Duggan heeded his call for help.

"This is where this crisis is going. This is where this war is going," Qazi said.

To combat the virus, they created specific COVID-19 units. One floor or part of a floor is dedicated to caring specifically for coronavirus patients, containing between 25 and 40 beds.

RELATED: Duggan: Nursing homes huge concern in COVID-19 fight

Qazi said when CDC said families should no longer visit nursing home residents, it proved to be an extra challenge for the health care workers.

“Now they’re the ‘family’ to them, and there’s no social distancing when you have to give someone a bath or feed them -- so these are true heroes in the nursing homes,” he said. 

With more testing and PPE, Qazi said staff is feeling more comfortable treating residents.