UPDATED: New state figures say 73 COVID positives at Legacy of Franklin

Seventy-three residents of the Legacy of Franklin nursing home tested positive for COVID-19, and 15 residents have died, according to newly released figures from the Louisiana Department of Health.
The 15 deaths represent the majority of the 29 COVID-19 fatalities among St. Mary people.
As reported locally, one resident of Patterson Healthcare had tested positive.
The total number of residents at Legacy of Franklin was listed as 87, although local reporting has put the number as high as 106.
Eighteen members of the staff of roughly 100 have also tested positive for COVID-19, according to the department.
The only other COVID-19 positives at St. Mary nursing homes have been at Patterson Healthcare, where one of the 95 residents and one employee tested positive.
Coroner Eric Melancon said the Patterson Healthcare resident’s subsequent tests indicate the original result may have been a false positive. The employee developed symptoms while at home, called in sick and stayed home to follow anti-COVID guidelines.
Legacy of Morgan City has reported no COVID-19 positives among its 73 residents.
Across the country, nursing homes have been a source of concern as the novel coronavirus spread.
In St. John the Baptist Parish’s Southeast Louisiana Veterans Home, 28 of 88 residents died from COVID-19-related illness. Another 11 residents died at the Twin Oaks Nursing Home in St. John, which at one point had one of the highest per-capita COVID-19 death rates in the world.
The Department of Health stopped reporting nursing home COVID-19 information for several weeks, and began to release the information again Monday at the request of media outlets.
“We started off trying to provide that level of information,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said at his Monday press conference. “It just became very difficult over time to do it.”
He said the current plans are to provide weekly details about COVID-19 infections in “congregant settings” such as nursing homes and jails.
State health officials have recently begun urging the leadership at congregant settings to begin widespread testing of people who don’t have COVID-19 symptoms. That change in policy follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Also Monday, Assistant Department of Health Secretary Dr. Alex Billioux confirmed that public health officials are looking into about 100 COVID-19 cases at three crawfish farms. The state has not named the businesses or their locations.
At the press conference, Billioux said that at least some of the new COVID-19 cases involved immigrant laborers who live in dormitory-style settings.
Monday numbers
A new COVID-19 case in St. Mary was the only positive test reported in three local parishes in Monday’s midday report from the Louisiana Office of Public Health. No deaths were reported between noon Sunday and noon Monday.
The new COVID-19 case raised St. Mary’s total to 275 after 2,245 tests. The number of deaths remains at 29.
In St. Martin, the case count remains at 274 after 2,618 tests. Twenty-two people have died from COVID-19 in St. Martin.
In Assumption, the case count remains at 230 after 1,603 tests. Eleven people have died there.
Statewide:
—277 new cases raises the state’s total to 34,709 after more than 267,000 tests.
—15 people died, raising the death toll to 2,240.
—The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 illness rose by 12 to 1,031.
—Five fewer people are on ventilators for a total of 118.