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Wayne State medical students to run nursing home resident COVID-19 tests overnight

Published  April 7, 2020 4:20pm EDT
Coronavirus in Michigan
FOX 2 Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The city of Detroit announced Tuesday that Wayne State medical students will be running the COVID-19 test results of nursing home residents overnight.

Mayor Mike Duggan said there are 27 nursing homes in Detroit and 14 have reported some rate of infection. There have been 12 deaths.

Why social distancing can save lives amid COVID-19 pandemic

Social distancing is not only about preventing the illness itself, but rather, slowing the rate at which people get sick. 

While the health department has been working with the nursing homes to isolate those infected, it’s hard to keep staff working if they’re being unnecessarily quarantined as they wait over a week for results. So over the next two days, 60 nursing home staffers will be tested via the 15-minute instant tests from Abbott Laboratories. 

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But elderly residents can’t be brought in to get tested. So after the testing labs shut down around 9 p.m. for the day, Wayne State students will run tests for those elderly residents until early into the morning. The nursing homes will have results first thing in the morning. 

RELATED: Social distancing: What to do and what not to do to slow the spread of COVID-19