Community staying strong during coronavirus outbreak at Northampton Co. rest home

Potecasi is a farm country in Northampton County that feels so far from the headlines. But it's become another dateline in the world's biggest story.

Posted 11:43 p.m. Mar 31, 2020 — Updated 11:45 p.m. Mar 31, 2020

Bryan Mims

, WRAL reporter

POTECASI, N.C. — Potecasi is a farm country in Northampton County that feels so far from the headlines. But it's become another dateline in the world's biggest story.

Andy Smith, the county's health director, said 23 residents of the Pine Forest Rest Home contracted the coronavirus, as did three employees. He said two people who came in contact with the home also tested positive. Another person, James Glascock, lived in the home for 10 days in March before going to a Virginia hospital for appendicitis. He died there Friday after testing positive for the virus.

"When you walk in there, it's family," said Matthew Dupuy, a pastor fo Galatia Baptist Church, which is organizing daily food deliveries. "All the residents know each other."

Pine Forest Rest Inc in Northampton County

Barbara Outland, owner of the Grapevine Cafe, said the community is loving on Pine Forest.

"It's sad because I know a lot of the people over there," Outland said. "I know the people that run it and stay there and take care of them."

Pine Forest employees have declined to speak with the media. Last September, the state cited the home for not complying with CDC guidelines for preventing the spread of pathogens. The inspection found that a staffer, having visited a patient with a bacterial infection, improperly removed personal protective gear in a medicine room. It also quotes the administrator as saying the infection control policy had not been updated "for years."

Still, around here, Pine Forest gets high marks.

"The staff is caring in a way that you don't usually get," Dupuy said.

Smith said all of those infected are showing few to no symptoms and are expected to recover. That's the headline this community wants to make. He also said he's working to figure out the source of the outbreak at Pine Forest. He said the other three coronavirus patients in the county are also expected to recover.

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