Millennium Trail Manor can’t shake outbreak

An inability to maintain necessary staffing levels and inadequate outbreak management protocols, including the proper cleaning of some protective gear, is fuelling a Niagara Falls COVID-19 outbreak at a longterm-care home that has already claimed at least two lives.

Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, said Monday the outbreak at Millennium Trail Manor isn’t going to end anytime soon as new staff and resident cases continue to emerge.

“I think it is fair to say the virus is largely spreading in the home, rather than staff coming into contact with the virus someplace else,” said Hirji, who said both staff and residents are contracting the novel coronavirus.

Of the five long-term-care and nursing homes in Niagara with COVID-19 outbreaks, the Millennium outbreak, which started on Sept. 29, is proving the be the most stubborn.

Other long- standing outbreaks are nearing their ends, Hirji said. Pioneer Elder Care in St. Catharines will be removed from the public health outbreak list Tuesday, he said. Meadows of Dorchester in Niagara Falls was almost over when another staff case was recently confirmed.

Unlike at Millennium, however, Meadows no longer has any resident cases, Hirji said.

The problems for Millennium have been exacerbated as more staff have become infected.

“You have to remember that it is not just the staff person who is a confirmed case who cannot come to work, it is any other staff that has come into contact with that person that also has to isolate,” Hirji said. “So they are really stretched for staff and don’t have enough people to do the extra work that needs to be done (in an outbreak) and also provide the necessary care they are supposed to.”

Health department inspectors have found this lack of staff has led in part, to some insufficient sanitizing measures in the home — a core means of reducing the spread of the virus.

In other cases, Hirji said, staff are not cleaning some of their personal protective equipment properly. In particular, he said face shields always have to be cleaned after every interaction with a resident, and that is not always happening. He also said inspectors have found staff are not properly putting on and taking off their gear — another important infection control measure.

An exact number of staff and residents currently infected by COVID-19 was not available Monday. At least two residents with the virus have died since the outbreak was declared.

In the post-summer COVID-19 wave, outbreaks in local long-term-care homes have largely been short-lived. An outbreak can be declared over if ahome goes two weeks without a new case. However, each time a new case is found, the twoweek countdown is reset.

Although the Millennium outbreak is proving to be stubborn, Hirji said he does not expect it will become as serious as the outbreaks were in some longterm-care homes in Niagara, which saw dozens of residents in three homes become infected and die.

One of Niagara’s four new COVID-19 home cases confirmed Monday is from a long-termcare home, although Hirji did not say which home.

Monday’s total was low compared to the burst in cases over the weekend with 23 cases confirmed Sunday and 13 on Saturday.

At least 69 Niagara residents with virus.