Manhattan nursing home reports 98 deaths linked to coronavirus; Mayor de Blasio calls the carnage “absolutely horrifying”

The Isabella Geriatric Center is shown Friday, May 1, 2020, in New York. The nursing home says nearly 100 of its residents have died from confirmed or suspected cases the novel coronavirus. It is among the hardest hit nursing homes in the state, with 46 confirmed fatalities and an additional 52 deaths of people suspected to have the virus.(Frank Franklin II/AP)

A staggering 98 nursing home patients from a single Manhattan facility perished during the coronavirus outbreak, with a stunned Mayor de Blasio describing the loss as “absolutely horrifying.”

Officials at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights confirmed the deaths of 46 residents who had COVID-19, along with another 52 people “suspected” of infection.

“It’s an inestimable loss, and it’s just impossible to imagine so many people lost in one place,” de Blasio said of the death toll at the 705-bed facility.

The home needed to bring in a refrigerator truck to store the dead as the toll continued to climb.

“The one thing we now know about the nursing homes is the status quo can’t continue, to say the least,” said the mayor. “Something very different has to happen.”

The shocking numbers through this past Wednesday were just the latest frightening jolt from the state’s nursing homes, with officials putting the death toll from New York state facilities at 3,065 — the most in the entire country.

State health officials report a least a half-dozen nursing home facilities with more than 40 patients killed by COVID-19.

“Isabella, like all other nursing homes in New York City, initially had limited access to widespread and consistent in-house testing to quickly diagnose our residents and staff,” said nursing home spokeswoman Audrey Waters in an email. “This hampered our ability to identify those who were infected and asymptomatic, despite our efforts to swiftly separate anyone who presented symptoms.”

According to Waters, there were 20 confirmed coronavirus deaths inside the nursing home and 26 confirmed coronavirus deaths of residents moved to hospitals.

Another 40 people were suspected to have died from the disease in the facility, and 12 more were thought to have died from the virus at hospitals, Waters said.

The deaths were first reported by NY1.

The nursing home denied allegations from Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) of trying to keep the rising death toll hidden, insisting they kept family members informed and accurately reported its numbers to the state Department of Health.

“We have shared daily the number of confirmed and presumed positive cases at both the residence and hospital, including deaths,” said Waters. "Together we will continue to fight this virus tirelessly and do everything we can to protect our residents and people.”