Three more residents at Pinecrest Nursing Home have died, bringing the number of novel coronavirus-related deaths in the Kawartha Lakes to 14.

Dr. Michelle Snarr, medical director at the Bobcaygeon long-term care facility, confirmed the deaths Tuesday morning. This brings the total number of COVID-19 related deaths since an outbreak was declared at the facility to 12.

There have also been two deaths involving people who did not live at Pinecrest. But one of those cases is related to Pinecrest. Jean Pollock had been visiting her husband Ted who only recently became a resident at the nursing home.

On Monday, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit confirmed 24 staff at the nursing home have been confirmed positive for COVID. Test results are pending for 10 staff and six staff have tested negative at the facility, which is the scene of the largest outbreak in the province.

The health unit also reports there are 33 confirmed cases of the virus in the City of Kawartha Lakes, 27 of which are related to Pinecrest.

Details emerging from inside Pinecrest are grim, said University of Toronto’s Dr. Anna Banerji, and underscore the need for emergency response teams that can be deployed to nursing homes or other facilities overwhelmed by outbreaks.

“There are these seniors there, there is not enough staff, people are dying. The families are not able to go in,” said Banerji, director of Global and Indigenous Health in U of T’s faculty of medicine.

“It sounds like a disaster zone.”

These medical SEAL teams, which Banerji says could be made up of military medics and healthcare workers, could “go in and basically take control,” she said.

The team’s aim would be not only to help provide care to those inside the home, but to also strategically stem the virus’s spread from expanding into the outside community.

“That’s the next step. I think the federal government needs to start applying this,” Banerji said.

In a statement to the Toronto Star on Tuesday, Kawartha Lakes mayor Andy Letham said the community is devastated by the deaths at Pinecrest.

“Our hearts go out to the residents and their families, for their losses and for the ongoing struggle,” he said, adding that they are also concerned with the nursing home’s staff.

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“The community has stepped up and we have volunteers helping out and signs of support are appearing in windows and doors,” Letham said.

The community has started a COVID-19 relief fund through the Community Foundation of Kawartha Lakes. Donations can be made by emailing info@kawathafoundation.ca.

Letham is urging the community to follow social distancing guidelines and stay home unless they are an essential worker.