Jeremy Pollard wants to know what is happening inside his mother’s nursing home, Marion Regional Nursing Home in Hamilton.

He has heard that four staff members had tested positive for coronavirus and at least two residents. One man who recently passed away might have had the virus. Pollard said a nurse told him the number of cases was climbing, and that all residents would be tested.

Then she told him results wouldn’t come back for seven to nine days.

“I told my wife that everybody is going to be dead by then,” Pollard said. “I think they should have acted the week of the 23rd when they started getting some cases.”

As the number of coronavirus cases linked to nursing homes in Alabama increases, the backlog for testing has grown.

“We’ve become aware that there is an enormous volume of COVID-19 tests outstanding – at least more than 1,000,” said Brandon Farmer, president of the Alabama Nursing Home Association. “Our members also report to us that they’re having difficulty even obtaining tests. The long delays in receiving tests and test results puts the lives of our residents and employees at risk.”

Some other states, including Louisiana, publish information about case clusters in assisted living and nursing homes. So far, Alabama has not publicly identified nursing homes with multiple cases.

The first nursing home cases of COVID-19 were reported March 19. The virus had spread to at least six facilities the following week.

Nursing homes have been particularly vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus – with clusters emerging all over the country in places designed to house the sick and elderly. Dozens of deaths have been linked to an early hotspot in Kirkland, Washington where workers silently spread the virus from room to room.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently lists nursing homes as Priority 2 for COVID-19 testing,” Farmer said. “That must change. Our national organization, the American Health Care Association, has asked the CDC to elevate nursing homes to Priority 1. This makes sense because we care for people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.”

Pollard said his mother has dementia and entered the nursing home last fall. He visited regularly and had been happy with her care until the virus hit.

When a nurse called to tell him about the first confirmed COVID-19 case, he wanted his mother tested. But that didn’t happen until several more cases had been detected, including one patient Pollard said lived on her hall.

Administrators of the nursing home, which is operated by the North Mississippi Medical Center, couldn’t be reached for comment.

A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Public Health said they have staff members specifically dedicated to investigating COVID-19 cases in nursing homes.

According to Wanda Heard, spokesperson for the Jefferson County Department of Health, they do not identify facilities with multiple cases.

“We cannot disclose that information as it jeopardizes people’s privacy,” Heard said. “If a nursing home is named, that information could be used to determine the identity of a case. In the event that a case is positive at a nursing home, we would work closely with their medical leadership to create a plan of action.”

Visitors are not allowed in Alabama nursing homes, which leaves Pollard feeling helpless and out of the loop.

“My wife and I really are the only ones taking care of her, and it’s been hard for her not seeing her grandchildren,” Pollard said.

Pollard wonders why healthy residents weren’t moved from the facility when cases began cropping up. Marion County has other nursing homes.

“Why didn’t they get them out of there?” he asked.

Farmer argued that nursing home residents should receive testing priority, since the illness has proved so deadly in those facilities.

“Alabama nursing homes are doing everything they can to care for their residents and prevent infections. Now, the government needs to provide the resources they need to keep up this fight for life.”