24 residents at care home test positive for COVID-19

Twenty-four residents living in an east-end long-term care (LTC) home have tested positive for COVID-19.

In a statement, Dr. Rhonda Collins, chief medical officer of the Montfort Long Term Care Home, said three staff members also tested positive.

The home is located on Montreal Road near the Montfort Hospital and has a similar name, but it is independent of the hospital and is managed by Revera Living.

Last week, the Ontario government updated its testing guidelines for COVID -19 to include LTC homes where a single resident or staff member had tested positive. This new guideline applied to the Montfort home last week after a staff member tested positive.

All 32 residents of the home were tested when some began to present symptoms of respiratory illness. Several others with symptoms were also tested, Collins said.

The results, which came back Sunday, confirmed that 24 residents had tested positive. Onethird of them were asymptomatic at the time they were swabbed.

All the residents who tested positive are in isolation. The three staff members are at home in self-isolation.

“We continue to monitor all residents for symptoms, including fever, twice daily,” Collins said. “We continue to screen all staff for symptoms at the beginning and end of their shifts.”

Revera Living also reported on Sunday that 29 residents and 19 staff at Stoneridge Manor Long Term Care Home in Carleton Place had tested positive and were in isolation or self-isolation.

A staff member at Revera’s Carlingview Manor tested positive last week.