SHA declares outbreak at care home days after residents get vaccines
Within the span of less than a week, a Saskatoon long-term care home has gone from celebrating the injection of COVID -19 vaccine doses to coping with an outbreak.
Seven residents at the Sherbrooke Community Centre longterm care home — where most have received their first vaccine dose — have tested positive for COVID-19, the facility said on Thursday.
An outbreak in the Kinsmen Village area of Sherbrooke was declared on Tuesday by the Saskatchewan Health Authority. All residents in that area are isolated in their rooms and all residents and staff were scheduled to be tested on Thursday.
Sherbrooke spokesman Eric Anderson said in an email that 243 out of 263 residents received their first doses of the Pfizer-biontech vaccine last week.
People must receive two doses of the vaccine for full immunization.
Anderson said he did not know whether any of those who had received their first vaccine dose were among the residents who tested positive.
Sherbrooke is working with the Saskatchewan Health Authority to control the outbreak and discover who else may have been exposed, Anderson added.
The outbreak declaration this week came after two people associated with Sherbrooke tested positive.
Sherbrooke, which is located on Acadia Drive in Saskatoon's College Park neighbourhood, did not indicate whether any staff had tested positive.
The first phase of the province's vaccine rollout includes the immunization of people living and working in long-term care homes.