Outbreaks over at five area care homes
False positive test results behind outbreak status at four of the long-term-care residences, Hirji says
Lois Brettell never thought she would be grateful for being able to visit her aunt through a window.
Like many people with family who live in long-term care, Brettell had to adapt to the cruelty of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person visits with her aunt were impossible, as West Park Lodge in St. Catharines, like all long-term-care and retirement homes, locked their doors to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Brettell and her 85-year-old aunt, Francis Brettell, made do. They visited through the window in a common room. But even that was taken away two weeks ago when her aunt tested positive for COVID-19.
Or so it seemed.
West Park Lodge was one of four homes recently placed in outbreak mode when residents tested positive. Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, thought the tests could be false positives. Francis Brettell and others showed no symptoms at all. But until he could get to the bottom of it, the outbreak would not be cleared.
Francis Brettell, the daughter of the late, and well known, Welland police sergeant Harry Brettell, was moved out of her room and her belongings packed away so her quarters could be deep cleaned.
She didn’t have her phone. Window visits were not possible because the common area was locked down.
“It was a crazy roller-coaster I hope I never have to live through again,” said Lois Brettell. “It’s been so tough.”
But on Monday, public health declared over the outbreaks at West Park Lodge and Tufford Nursing Home both in St. Catharines, Kilean Lodge in Grimsby and Crescent Park Lodge in Fort Erie. People who tested positive have had no symptoms, Hirji said, and no one else has either shown signs of a COVID-19 infection or tested positive.
On Thursday, Lois and Franics Brettell will meet again through the window.
“She is back with her TV and back with her phone, and she is doing so much better,” said Lois Brettell.
“I can’t wait to see her.”
Also declared over Monday was one of Niagara’s longest standing outbreaks at Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls.
It started in early April and sickened at least 41 residents and eight staff. At least 18 residents with the virus have died.
The exact numbers of infected people and deaths at the home is not being publicly disclosed by the home’s parent company Oxford Living since family of residents launched a $20-million class-action lawsuit that alleges the facility did not take necessary steps to protect its residents from the novel coronavirus.
Lundy Manor was one of three homes that for months had been the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in Niagara. Outbreaks at Seasons Retirement Community in Welland was declared over in May, leaving Royal Rose Place in Welland with the largest health-care facility outbreak in the region.
Since public health and Niagara Health staff bolstered infection control training at several area long-term care homes, combined with widespread testing of residents and staff, the number of new cases in the homes began to fall in May. However, any new case meant public health would not lift the outbreak status for at least two weeks.
Even with fewer new cases in long-term care homes, residents account for more than 26 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in Niagara.
As of Monday, the historic total number of cases in the region is 666, with 48 of them still active. There are 12 people being treated for the virus at St. Catharines hospital.
At least 59 Niagara residents with the virus have died since the pandemic began.