Photo: VCG

The epidemic situation in nursing homes in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, which faces shortages of medical resources and holds a large number of susceptible people, caught public attention as the local government refuted online rumors exaggerating the infection situation in a local nursing home. 

On Monday night, Wuhan's Jiang'an district government dispelled a rumor circulating online saying 120 senior residents at a local nursing home were infected with the virus. 

Eight people of a total of 47 at the nursing home tested positive for the coronavirus and all of them have been hospitalized as of Monday, the government noted.

The epidemic situation in nursing homes in Wuhan caught public attention as Wuhan authorities on Friday requested local social welfare institutes, where suspected and confirmed infections had been found, to finish the nucleic acid tests by February 22 and other social welfare units to finish the tests by February 28.

The government also vowed to set up a hospitalization express channel for the nursing homes' cases who tested positive, and recruit and train more nursing workers for the elderly residents.

Nursing homes in Wuhan seemingly face difficulties and need more support to fight against the virus. Chinese media outlet Caixin.com reported Monday 19 people at a social welfare institute in Wuhan, about one kilometer away from the Huanan Seafood Market, which is widely considered the source of the virus outbreak in Wuhan, died of the virus from December 2019 to February 2020. 

An employee of the Social Welfare Institute of Wuhan Jianghan District told the Global Times on Tuesday that it is short of medicines, protective equipment and nursing workers. 

The Global Times reporter found on a navigation application that the institute is less than three kilometers to the Huanan Seafood Market.

The employee noted that the institute has adopted closed management and finished nucleic acid tests. Confirmed and suspected infections and those who have a fever have been transferred to hospitals for treatment and quarantine.

The institute has the most elderly residents compared with other district-based nursing home in Hubei: 738, with an average age of 86.8, among whom 72 percent are disabled and semi-disabled, according to the website of the institute.