HOLYOKE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) — A group of lawmakers is now investigating the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
This comes as 101 veterans have died, with 76 of them testing positive.
Countless others contracted the illness and recovered and this group of legislators is tasked with looking into how the virus spread so quickly.
There are already multiple investigations into the Soldiers’ Home underway and the independent investigation ordered by the governor was completed weeks ago.
We spoke with the lawmakers on the Legislative Oversight Committee about how their probe into the home will be different from the others.
“There was not a dry eye there,” said State Sen. John Velis.
Velis has already begun listening sessions with the families of the vets who died in the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. He is part of a 17-member legislative committee tasked with investigating the deadly outbreak, considered one of the worst at a long-term care facility in the country.
“There was a D-Day survivor. To survive that and then come back to this and go through what they did…” Velis noted.
Velis is hoping the families’ input will help probe further back before the outbreak in March.
“All the time that they spent up there visiting, their observations, what they saw, what they feel could make it better,” Velis said.