COVID RIPS FOX

97 Ill, 12 Dead At Nursing Home

By MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

A coronavirus outbreak swept through Fox Nursing Home mid-January, sickening 97 staff and residents, and ultimately killing 12 of the residents.

“After more than 10 months with no resident cases, the outbreak occurred suddenly with half of the total cases occurring within a week of onset,” Fox Hospital spokesperson Gabrielle Argo confirmed.

The first COVID cases among residents were confirmed on Jan. 14, and the first death occurred two days later.

Among the victims were Patricia O’Brien of Oneonta, who died Jan. 24 in the nursing home’s Unit One, after living there seven years.

Another was Bernice Marlette, Mount Vision, three days later on her 99th birthday.

Charles Rizzo, a World War II Navy veteran and later a nurse in Oneonta, died Jan. 30 at age 97.

Frances Sokol, a Quaker activist from Unadilla who once met Eleanor Roosevelt, turned 100 in December. Before she died with COVID on Feb. 4, she complained to her daughter how the oxygen made her throat feel so dry.

The most recent death was this Monday, Feb. 8.