Elderwood of Uihlein at Lake Placid is seen in September 2018. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

LAKE PLACID — Elderwood of Uihlein has confirmed one resident of the nursing home has tested positive for COVID-19.

Chuck Hayes, vice president of marketing and communications for the Elderwood chain of elder-care facilities, said the company has isolated the resident and reported the case to the state Department of Health

“Elderwood has implemented established isolation and infection control protocols, as well as those protocols consistent with recommendations from the (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the … state Department of Health for persons suspected of having the virus,” Hayes wrote in a press release sent to families of residents.

Hayes said Elderwood is unable to identify the resident or say anything about the person’s present condition, citing health care privacy laws. He said the resident has been made comfortable in the isolated setting and is under constant supervision from staff members, who wear full personal protective equipment including medical gowns, gloves, eye protection and masks.

Hayes said he could not say if the person is an established resident or a new resident the facility took in recently.

Elderwood’s facilities are open for admissions, and the state has dictated that it cannot refuse to admit people just because they have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Hayes said when Elderwood accepts new residents, they are isolated for 14 days regardless of the location from which they were admitted.

“Monitoring will be conducted and indications for testing, of other residents who have been in close proximity to the affected resident are evaluated by the medical staff,” Hayes wrote in an email.

He said Elderwood is notifying all residents and their family members within 24 hours of when any resident tests positive for COVID-19, or if any resident suffers a COVID-19-related death.

Jefferson County is working to test all nursing home residents, county public health Director Ginger Hall said Monday in a conference call between U.S Rep. Elise Stefanik and county health officials. Hall estimated that will work out to roughly 1,500 additional tests.

“We’re working on nursing home residents, getting them tested as well as employees,” she said.

Testing for COVID-19 has been extremely limited in the North Country, but now it is starting to be expanded. Until the last few days, it was mostly restricted to people with the disease’s symptoms who were sick enough to be hospitalized, plus health care workers, prison inmates and corrections officers who showed symptoms. On Friday, Adirondack Health, based in Saranac Lake, announced that testing will also be available to nursing home residents and staff, as well as people ordered by doctors to get tested, those whom the Franklin or Essex County health departments request be tested, health care workers and any other workers deemed “essential” by the state, and all prison inmates and corrections officers.