Brought in from other parts of the state or country, some employees of the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell, a 235-bed nursing home in Valatie, were living at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Castleton while they worked at the facility. Some were sick, but they weren’t isolating, the hotel owner reported.
Then, in May, an outbreak of COVID-19 cases – which appears to have been among the largest nationwide in a nursing home that month – swept through the facility often known locally as Barnwell. That month, 12 staff members and 20 residents tested positive for the virus, according a Barnwell spokesman, county health officials and data the facility reported to federal regulators. Two residents died in the nursing home and one died later at the hospital, officials said.