After a case is confirmed, the health department regards anyone else in the facility displaying symptoms a presumed positive, and 20 of the facility’s 160 residents had fevers or coughs, Wright said in an interview Monday.

Answering through a media liaison Tuesday, Wright did not say how many tests have been administered or how many people are awaiting results.

“Fortunately we have been able to access both supplies and testing facilities and expect to have a much clearer picture of COVID-19 cases soon,” he said. “We would ask that we be allowed to evaluate those results before we make any conjectures regarding the total number of cases.”

On Monday, Wright said he has been short-staffed because several of the nurses and aides work at other long-term care facilities in the area and have been instructed by the other facilities not to return to Canterbury because of the outbreak.

Wright said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not impose these restrictions and the situation calls for all hands on deck.

He said he has several staff members who have been working with very few breaks, returning to work after only six-hour breaks.