More COVID testing needed: Fife

WATERLOO — More testing needs to happen so we can know how and where the coronavirus is spreading, says Waterloo New Democrat MPP Catherine Fife.

“Everything comes back to testing,” she said. “If we are not doing extensive testing, how can you have adequate community modelling?”

But testing appears to be delayed in some care homes in Waterloo Region.

A COVID-19 outbreak was declared at Westhill Retirement Residence in Waterloo after a man living there tested positive last Friday. He was in hospital before the outbreak was declared.

Fife said she heard from concerned adult children who have their parents living in the retirement home and they are worried that testing of their family is lagging.

Westhill offers individualized apartment units to residents in the area of Ira Needles Boulevard and Erb Street West.

Fife said families are worried about their parents who are in daily contact with personal support workers and nurses even though they live in their own units.

Sylvie Lucas, director of retirement living at London-based Sifton Properties, which operates Westhill, said all residents are in isolation in their suites. Visitors have not been allowed in the building for several weeks, she said in an email.

Lucas said all employees have personal protective equipment and “our supply chains for continued PPE is in place and we have plentiful inventory on site.”

She said Westhill is working with local public health officials to test employees and residents. Families of all residents were notified of the positive case on Friday. “There are no other persons symptomatic or presumed to have symptoms,” she said.

Isolation measures will continue for up to three weeks.

Waterloo Region’s acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said public health is following provincial guidelines when it comes to managing an outbreak at care homes.

The province mandates only longterm care homes be tested, but the region is also testing retirement homes such as Westhill. Wang said the next step is expanding testing to the entire residence. At Westhill, testing of the remainder of residents was to begin on Tuesday, she said.

At many long-term care homes, concerns remain despite public health officials overseeing local outbreaks.

Concerning issues include staffing shortages, a lack of testing for residents and whether proper protocols around personal protective equipment are being followed, Fife said.

And even though the province has said personal support workers can not work at multiple homes, “workers are still moving from home to home,” she said.

“It is a shameful state of affairs and heartbreaking,” said Fife, referring to the number of positive cases and deaths in long-term care homes in the region and across the province. On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said the province now has the power to take over managing longterm care homes struggling with COVID-19 outbreaks.

Across the province, more than 1,200 people living in long-term care homes have died of COVID-19. Locally, 105 people have died and more than 80 per cent of those deaths are in care homes.

“In my opinion, any economic recovery strategy should incorporate a strategy for health services,” Fife said. “For now the government is just trying to put out fires.”