SAN ANTONIO — UPDATE:
There are now ten confirmed deaths at the facility, and officials have released a statement saying they are "devastated" and "confounded" by the deadly outbreak.
Original Story:
The official number of Bexar County deaths attributed to COVID-19 jumped to 18 Tuesday afternoon after local health officials disclosed a handful of previously-unreported deaths associated with the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center outbreak.
The city had previously reported three coronavirus-related deaths of residents from the nursing facility. But, according to city officials, the nursing home provided information on five other residents who died at the nursing home since Sunday, after testing positive for the coronavirus.
There is also an additional coronavirus-related death of a local resident who was not at the nursing home, bringing the count of new deaths reported from local officials on Tuesday to six total.
Metro Health noted that all residents at the nursing facility who died after testing positive were at least 70 years old and hadn't starting showing symptoms yet.
As of Monday evening, there was 456 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the San Antonio area. That number is expected to rise after Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Judge Nelson Wolff provided their latest daily briefing shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday.