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JOHNSTON It was June when silver-haired Anna Amalfitano, 87, emerged from 44 days of quarantine in the nursing home’s downstairs isolation ward.
She had been the first resident at Cherry Hill Manor Nursing and Rehab Center diagnosed with COVID-19 after her caregiver tested positive for the virus toward April’s end.
By then workers at Cherry Hill, as in nursing homes across America, navigated the halls looking like space walkers, covered from head to toe in gowns and masks, making it hard for residents like Amalfitano to recognize them.
Amalfitano didn’t fully grasp the gravity of personal loss suffered at the center until residents were allowed to move out of their rooms again as case numbers dipped.