Eight residents of a Milwaukee nunnery have died of COVID-19, school sisters in the Central Pacific province of Notre Dame have announced.
Provincial leader Debra Maria Sciano said the first died last week, and four died just this Monday, according to The Associated Press.
“Even though they’re older and most of the sisters who went to God are about 80, 90 … we didn’t expect them to go that fast,” he told the AP. “So it was very difficult for us.”
All the sisters who have tested positive have been isolated, with meals in their rooms, Sciano said, though he declined to say how many have tested positive for the virus in total. A similar outbreak was reported in July, in which 13 nuns died in a convent in the Detroit area. At the convent of Our Lady of the Angels in Greenfield, Washington, at least six have died, according to the AP.
Local officials have been in contact with the retirement home since November, said Linda Wickstrom, a spokeswoman for Waukesha County Health and Human Services. Wickstrom added that the Notre Dame School Sisters have been disinfecting surfaces that people frequently touch and wear masks.
“Given the extreme contagiousness of this virus, it is extremely important that congregation parameters practice basic protocols to stop the spread of the disease,” he said.
The deaths recorded so far at the facility are sisters Rose M. Feess, Mary Elva Wiesner, Dorothy MacIntyre, Mary Alexius Portz, Cynthia Borman, Joan Emily Kaul, Lillia Langreck and Michael Marie Laux, according to the house. Sciano said all the sisters had worked as educators.
“We believe that each of these sisters and all the sisters have made a difference in this world,” he told the AP. “I think it’s important for people to know that and to be committed to the end of their lives.”