WOOSTER — The Wayne County Health Department says a single Wooster nursing home has accounted for more than half of the COVID-19 cases in the county and all the local deaths from the virus so far.

The health agency reported that 10 residents and 10 staff members at Glendora Health Care Center, 1552 N. Honeytown Road, have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Five of its residents have died.

Wayne County had 37 cases overall and 12 hospitalizations as of Friday afternoon, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

The Glendora figures include people who have tested positive for the virus, and probable cases diagnosed by a clinician, county Health Commissioner Nicholas Cascarelli said Friday.

“This is an extremely unfortunate situation and certainly our sympathies are with the deceased family and friends,” Cascarelli said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to work with the nursing home and work on preventing further cases and deaths.”

The health agency is working with the nursing home to identify people who have been in close contact with patients who have the virus, and quarantining at-risk individuals.

“Nursing homes are hot spots for this potentially deadly disease,” Cascarelli added.

A woman at Glendora Health Care Center, who identified herself as the administrator, said the information given by the health department was not accurate.

"I can tell you that's not the case,” she said. “I'm not sure where they're getting their information. Up until this point, we have not decided to make any sort of comment to the media because we've been dealing with it with all of our residents, staff members and their families."

Glendora has 49 certified beds, according to the U.S. Department for Medicare.

Progressive Quality Care, based in Parma, is the parent corporation of Glendora and oversees 12 Northeast Ohio nursing homes, including The Avenue at Wooster. Brothers Shaul and Eitan Flank, along with their brother-in-law Joel Sausen, are the listed as the owners of Progressive Quality Care on the company’s website.

Cascarelli said that the Ohio Department of Health on Thursday changed how it defines a COVID-19 case. Previously, cases could be confirmed only through testing, but now doctors can diagnose a patient if they believe it’s probable the person has COVID-19.

“We have 20 cases (at Glendora),” Cascarelli said in a phone interview Friday. “Not all of those are confirmed, because the definition for a case changed. Some of those could be presumptive. If a clinician deems they’re a probably COVID-19 case, they would be included in that number.”

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Under this updated definition, Cascarelli said he expects to see the number of reported cases, and deaths, rise.

The four Wayne County residents whose COVID-19 deaths were reported Friday were: an 83-year-old female, a 72-year-old female, an 81 year-old male and an 84-year-old female. Only one of those people was hospitalized, Cascarelli said. A 71-year-old man who had been hospitalized with the coronavirus was the first reported virus-related death in the county on Wednesday.

The family of 71-year-old Robert Campbell, a Vietnam veteran, identified him as the first death and said that he had been staying at Glendora before being taken to Wooster Community Hospital.

His stepdaughter Tammy Turpin and her sister Kimberly Rew, 38, had to say goodbye to their father over the phone, as they were not allowed into his room at the hospital before he died. Turpin said it’s not the way anyone should have to say goodbye to a family member.

“It’s not the way you want to do this,” she said.

The deaths reported on Friday occurred between Sunday and Thursday, Cascarelli added.

“Some of those before were not confirmed cases, but they’re considered cases now, with the new definition,” he said.

The Wayne County Health Department said it would not release any additional information out of respect for privacy of the families impacted.

The Ohio Department of Health has reported there have been 231 total deaths statewide, as of Friday afternoon.

— Daily Record reporters Samantha Ickes and Emily Morgan contributed to this story.

— Daily Record reporter Jack Rooney can be reached at 330-287-1645 or jrooney@the-daily-record.com. He is on Twitter at twitter.com/RooneyReports.