Possible Coronavirus Death At Veterans Home

The WAAY 31 I-Team is working to confirm a coronavirus related death at the Tut Fann Veterans Home in Huntsville.

Dan shaffer.

Today - the waay 31 i-team worked to confirm a coronavirus related death at the veteran's home in huntsville.

We started looking into it after reporting about two dozen active cases - but no deaths - at tut fann.

Waay 31's sydney martin is live outside the veteran's home with what happened next.

A viewer called and said someone here did die after testing positive for coronavirus.

The family which didn't want to be identified said their loved one tested positive for the virus before dying here last week.

But the veteran's affairs office told us it could be weeks before a death linked to the virus could be confirmed.

The alabama department of veterans affairs office told me in this email it's numbers for tut fann would not reflect a death until it's confirmed by the alabama department of public health.

A spokesperson told me the process to confirm a death can take more than two weeks from the time of the death- and they won't confirm any coronavirus death investigations.

What i did confirm is the person who possibly died from the coronavirus tested positive at an area hospital before being put in quarantine here at tut funn.

Today, i reached out to doctor karen landers with the alabama department of public health.

She said the infectious disease and outbreak staff which includes a board-certified physician with primary care training reviews any possible coronavirus death.

Some of the factor looked at in these reviews includes verifying test results and assessing risk factors, according to landers.

Landers explained the timeline to determine that information can vary depending on when the department of public health recieves all necessary records- but said once that's complete it's usually a few days to complete the process.

I reached out to the alabama department of veterans affairs today to learn if any additional residents tested positive since we learned about the 26 active cases this week.

The spokesperson told me she had no new cases to report as of today.

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