March 24: Health officials meet with care home directors to discuss ways that care homes can protect seniors from Covid-19. Measures discussed include banning visitors, boosting cleaning and emergency plans if residents are infected.April 8: a senior nurse at Westmeath Residential and Nursing Home falls ill at work and leaves to consult with her doctor.April 9: David Burt, the Premier, tells a press conference he has been informed of possible cases at nursing homes and that earlier in the week he told the Ministry of Health “to have all residents and staff in affected nursing homes be tested”. The Premier says: “We have an aggressive testing regime and we will test all possible cases, to ensure we break any chain of transmission.” Health minister Kim Wilson says the Government’s public health emergency response team has worked with rest homes to improve safety, including issuing “specific guidelines” such as social-distancing to prevent spread of the virus.April 10: the senior nurse at Westmeath is confirmed to have Covid-19.April 11: the chairwoman of Westmeath’s board of trustees e-mails the Premier to request testing of all staff and residents as a matter of urgency. She writes: “This is a key member of staff wandering throughout the facility and interacting with residents/patients and staff while having symptoms.” The same day, The Royal Gazette reports that a 66-year-old resident of the Matilda Smith Williams Seniors Residence is in hospital in critical condition.April 12: The Government’s nurse epidemiologist writes to Westmeath stating that four of its managers have been exposed to Covid-19. She describes it as “potential high-risk exposure”. The same day, health minister Kim Wilson reveals the coronavirus has spread within Matilda Smith Williams and that it has four positive cases: two residents and two staff. The 66-year-old man from Matilda Smith Williams dies.April 13: Westmeath holds a meeting to tell residents about the positive case. It writes to families, telling them: “The premises are being deep cleaned this morning and many other precautionary measures observed.”April 14: The deep clean of Westmeath is completed. A second staff member at Westmeath — a casual nurse who also worked at Matilda Smith Williams — is confirmed to have the coronavirus. All Westmeath residents begin having their vital signs monitored daily. The home says in an e-mail to families: “This was already in place for some residents, but we are now completing this step on all residents. Staff were already being monitored and this will continue. We have increased the social-distancing of residents within the facility by moving tables and chairs to respect the 6ft social-distancing.”April 15: Ms Wilson tells a press conference that 23 Covid-19 cases are now linked to Matilda Smith Williams, taking the total associated with the home to 27. The health minister is asked by TNN Bermuda if staff and residents at a second larger rest home have been tested. She replies: “The particular home that you’re speaking about, the individual that did test positive was a transmission from outside, it wasn’t a transmission within the home … the contact took place outside of the home, was not related to the home at all, that just happened to be a place of their employment and those persons that had close contact with that individual, the contact tracing is taking place and they will be tested appropriately.”April 16: New rules for care and nursing homes come into effect, which allow the Chief Medical Officer to restrict workers at a nursing home from working at other homes. Ms Wilson is asked by The Royal Gazette why nursing home staff weren’t banned from moonlighting at other homes earlier, when visitors to homes were banned. She says: “We’ve been working with the nursing homes since the public health emergency response team started meeting in January and trying to encourage them to dissuade persons from going to multiple homes so we were hoping that that process could have been taken place and as a result of it not doing so, that’s why the Government decided that we would have to amend the regulations to effectively legislate and require that persons only work at one principal home.”April 20: A resident at Westmeath is confirmed to have Covid-19. The senior is taken to hospital where they are understood to be stable.April 21: The Ministry of Health issues a press release announcing all three Westmeath cases. Westmeath is in the process of telling residents and e-mailing families when the press release is shared with the public by the media.April 22: Testing of all residents and most staff at Westmeath takes place. Chief Medical Officer Cheryl Peek-Ball tells a press conference: “At the April 10 date, the details of the case did not warrant testing ... the entire population of residents and staff”.April 24:The Royal Gazette reveals that ten additional positive cases at Westmeath have been identified. Ms Wilson says disclosure of the information is premature.April 25: The remaining staff at Westmeath are due to be tested. The Ministry of Health confirms that Westmeath has 13 cases. The confirmation takes the number of known cases at nursing homes to 41.April 26: A resident at Westmeath is confirmed as the sixth death in Bermuda related to Covid-19.