Second Peterborough virus death a St. Joseph’s at Fleming resident
Number of Peterborough cases remains at 86, with 44 now resolved
Peterborough’s second COVID-19 death was a woman in her 90s who had been a resident at St. Joseph’s at Fleming, one of the local long-term care homes that has had an outbreak during the pandemic.
The woman had been in palliative care since January at the Brealey Drive home, before the pandemic was declared, medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra told a teleconference press briefing on Wednesday from the Peterborough Public Health offices.
She died April 18. Her death certificate lists COVID-19 as a contributing factor in her death, so the death was classified on Tuesday as the second COVID-19 death of the pandemic for Peterborough city and county and Curve Lake and Hiawatha First Nations.
She had tested positive on March 22, according to Ontario Public Health.
Salvaterra said all residents and staff at St. Joseph’s at Fleming have been tested for COVID-19, and that seven cases were confirmed Saturday, and two more cases have been confirmed since then.
These newly diagnosed people at St. Joseph’s — who have all since been put into isolation
— were all either asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms, Salvaterra said.
She also said the tests likely came back positive because the lab was using a new, more sensitive test method.
“We believe they were found very early, when their viral load was very low,” she said.
The health unit also has outbreaks at St. John’s Seniors Centre, Peterborough Retirement Residence, Extendicare Lakefield and Empress Gardens.
There have also been cases at Curve Lake First Nation and the first case at Hospice Peterborough, a patient who had came from St. John’s Centre.
The health unit has now conducted 3,713 tests for the virus, up 2,000 from a week ago, after the provincial government expanded the qualifications to get tested.
“The amount of testing in the past week is the equivalent to the number of tests in all the weeks leading up to it,” Salvaterra told reporters.
Residents in all long-term care homes in the health unit’s jurisdiction will all be tested by May 12, she said.
Centennial Place and Applewood Manor have both been fully tested and no positive cases were found, she said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Peterborough Public Health reported 86 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 2,798 tests coming back negative and 829 awaiting the results of tests.
Salvaterra said about seven per cent of the positive cases have been hospitalized.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 44 of the 86 cases have been resolved, meaning they went through 14 days without fever or other symptoms, or two negative tests for hospitalized patients and for front-line healthcare workers.
The jurisdiction’s first death happened April 12 when 68year-old retired psychologist Dr. George Dimitroff died from COVID-19.
Despite all the new cases over the past week, Peterborough continues to have a lower rate of COVID-19 cases than the provincial average, Ontario Public Health figures show.
As of Wednesday, Peterborough had a rate of 58.2 cases per 100,000 people and 1.4 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000. The provincial average is 105.8 cases per 100,000 people.
The nearby Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit — which was hard hit by a deadly outbreak at Pinecrest
Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon and which confirmed a 157th case Wednesday — has a rate of 83.1 cases per 100,000 people.
The case at Hospice Peterborough does not constitute an outbreak, Salvaterra said, because it was linked to St. John’s Centre.
The St. John’s Centre retirement home had an outbreak declared last week after one staff member was diagnosed with COVID-19.
The worker was well on April 17 and called in sick April 20 — and didn’t return to work.
The person who was transferred over to Hospice Peterborough had resided at St. John’s Centre, Salvaterra said.
“We believe that’s where the exposure took place,” and so they are included as part of the St. John’s Centre outbreak.
The person was transferred from St. John’s Centre to Hospice, Salvaterra said, because they were palliative.
“And, in fact, Hospice’s policy is that anyone coming into the facility is self-isolated for 14 days. So they were completely isolated, and developed their symptoms after they entered Hospice — but the exposure must have happened before their admission,” she said.
The person was in Hospice just three or four days before the symptoms emerged, which is well within the 14-day incubation period for COVID-19, Salvaterra said.
“So we’re linking the exposure to St. John’s. And we don’t believe there’s been any exposure in Hospice,” she said.
Personal protective equipment was being donned by all health-care workers already at Hospice, Salvaterra added, so they don’t believe anyone was exposed to the virus there.
Salvaterra said the screening questions for COVID have changed because more symptoms have been associated with COVID-19 — symptoms such as hoarse voice, difficulty swallowing, loss of sense of smell, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, for instance.