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Coronavirus Latest: Strike Team Doctor Says Most Nursing Home Staff In Maryland Is 'Out Sick'

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Everyday there are more COVID-19 cases confirmed inside Maryland nursing homes, and as the numbers grow, so does the need for help from the state's strike teams.

Fighting on the front lines is Dr. Morgan Katz, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins. She is on one of the state's strike teams, tasked with testing for coronavirus in nursing homes and facilities statewide.

"A lot of these facilities, it's widespread in many of them that we've tested, 60 to 70 percent of the residents are tested, even if they are asymptomatic," Katz said.

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Dr. Katz said she gets a 24-hour notice of where she'll be deployed, then with her team, they spend six to eight hours a day testing some of the state's most vulnerable.

She said their mission is supporting the staff.

"A lot of these nursing homes are having a lot of difficulty with staffing right now because most of their staff are out sick," she said. "So were tying to identify those issues early on so they don't get to the crisis spot."

The Maryland Health Department said, currently inside nursing homes, more than 4,300 residents have tested positive, and nearly 800 have died. That's about 60 percent of the state's total COVID-19 deaths. Nearly 1,900 staff members also are infected, and 11 of them died.

Last week, Gov. Larry Hogan announced universal testing inside nursing homes, mandating that all residents and staff are tested.

He said the state has completed a survey of all facilities, but with 24,000 residents, the testing process is ongoing.

"We're going through it systematically with the hottest ones, with the biggest problems, and working our way down the list," Gov. Hogan said.

Dr. Katz said more testing may cause a significant spike in cases.

"As we're doing more widespread testing, the numbers in nursing homes are going to go up considerably," she said.

Gov. Hogan said these strike teams are making great progress in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.

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