State reports 5 deaths at Ketchikan Pioneer Home; all COVID cases

JUNEAU (AP) — The state has reported the deaths of five residents of the Pioneer Home in Ketchikan who had tested positive for COVID-19.

“In the last week, the Ketchikan Pioneer Home has had five resident deaths and there has been a total of 12 residents and five staff test positive for COVID-19 this month,” Clinton Bennett, a state Department of Health and Human Services spokesman wrote in an email to the Ketchikan Daily News on Aug. 18. He did not provide a more precise timeline.

The state Pioneer Homes “do not determine the cause of death nor do they see the death certificates of residents,...