Care home linked to more than 200 cases
Family members of Calgarians with dementia say they feel helpless amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than 200 residents and staff members at a northeast supportive living facility
ccording to an update from Agecare Skypointe sent to family members Friday, 113 residents of the facility have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, with 30 considered having tested positive more than two weeks ago. Sixteen of those residents have died from the virus.
As well, 88 staff members at the site have tested positive for COVID-19, with 48 considered to have recovered.
Joy Bowen-eyre's father has dementia and has lived at Agecare Skypointe for two and a half years. He tested positive Dec. 18. At the time of his diagnosis, she said she received inconsistent information from staff members about her father's COVID-19 status.
“One of my biggest concerns, if they don't have the ability to tell whether he's positive or negative from staff member to staff member, how do they have the ability to control the spread?” Bowen-eyre said.
“My concern now is my father has this, and he does wander because he has Alzheimer's, and he's going to pass this on to someone else's loved one.”
Katherine Cormier said she had similar worries about her 93-yearold father-in-law, who has dementia and is a resident of Agecare Skypointe.
He hasn't tested positive for COVID-19, but Cormier said the large number of staff who have tested positive raise concerns about how the facility is caring for its residents.
“We're not hearing anything about how they're even keeping up with staffing. Every day lately, more and more staff members seem to be coming down with it,” she said.
“To me, it seems out of control there.”
Bowen-eyre called on Alberta Health Services to step in to support the staffing situation at AgeCare Skypointe.
AHS said Saturday the provincial agency provides some staff for supportive-living clients at the facility. It said supports including testing for staff and residents, and contact tracing, have been provided.
“We continue to closely monitor the situation and are collaborating with Agecare to ensure the necessary enhanced safety protocols are in place to protect residents and staff,” AHS said in a statement.
Virus transmission at the facility seemed to be under control until about two weeks ago, Cormier said, at which point transmission accelerated among residents and staff.
The outbreak at the facility now ranks among the most severe in an Alberta continuing-care centre, with more cases now reported than in recent outbreaks at Clifton Manor and Revera Mount Royal.
Neither Bowen-eyre nor Cormier have seen their family members since around Thanksgiving. The facility began logging COVID-19 cases shortly after and restricted visitation.
On Christmas Eve, Bowen-eyre talked with her father via video chat and said he did not look well. She said she was frustrated because she thought the facility had ample time to plan for an outbreak.
“I told them, ` We've been in this pandemic for over nine months now. I would have thought you would have a plan in place to help or to be proactive with looking after folks who have dementia and Alzheimer's and are in one of your care facilities,'” Bowen-eyre said. “I feel helpless.”
Agecare did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Postmedia on Saturday.
In its update to families, the Calgary-based company said residents are screened for symptoms twice daily, and are swabbed and isolated if they develop symptoms.
They said staff members who tested positive isolated at home.
Additionally, Agecare said AHS had identified staff at the facility as eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. Residents were not immediately flagged for vaccination as the province is unable to transport doses to the site, according to Agecare.
Other facilities operated by the company have also reported cases, including Agecare Walden, where five deaths have been reported, according to Alberta Health.
Cormier called the situation “gut-wrenching,” adding she would have liked to see more action taken to avoid the large-scale outbreak.
“Canada and the world, we didn't protect these people, and how could we have when staff continue to get sick?” Cormier said.
“There's so many positive residents now that you can bet the 16 that have passed away is going to go up.”