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A home health aide in New Jersey is facing five counts of endangerment after an 80-year-old woman she cared for died after contracting Covid-19.
The aide, Josefina Brito-Fernandez, 49, was asked to self-quarantine by health officials after testing positive for the virus at a Camden testing site in mid-April, the New Jersey attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Instead, Brito-Fernandez continued treating the woman and two developmentally disabled siblings in their home without personal protective equipment the next day, the attorney general said.
Home video appears to show the health aide without PPE taking vital signs, feeding and sponge-bathing the woman, according to the attorney general’s office. The aide’s employer had mandated all employees wear PPE when treating patients, the attorney general’s office said.
The elderly woman and four other members of the household later tested positive for the virus. The woman was hospitalized and died days after the home visit.
The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office declined to confirm whether Brito-Fernandez tested positive for the virus citing medical privacy laws, but it is known that she was in contact with someone who had Covid-19 before experiencing symptoms, according to the press release.
The New Jersey attorney general’s office and New Jersey State Police also declined to confirm that Brito-Fernandez received a positive Covid-19 test result.
CNN reached out to the state Division of Consumer Affairs to confirm Brito-Fernandez has an active nursing license but did not immediately hear back.
Brito-Fernandez is not currently in custody, according to Colby Gallagher, a spokeswoman with the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
A court appearance has not been scheduled yet, and it is not known if she has retained an attorney at this time, Gallagher said.
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