Outbreak claims 21 at Edmonton care home
Province’s pharmacies get OK to do testing
EDMONTON • An outbreak of the new coronavirus at an Edmonton nursing home has killed 21 people.
The latest to succumb to the virus on Thursday were five women — one in her 70s, one in her 80s and three in their 90s.
“This is a stark example of the devastation this virus can cause,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Thursday as the province reported 113 new coronavirus cases.
“We are taking this outbreak extremely seriously.”
But Hinshaw said the province would only take over operations of the Good Samaritan Southgate Care Centre if the facility was unable to comply with mandatory public health orders.
“This has not been the case here.”
Hinshaw said Alberta Health Services has been monitoring staffing levels and that she has been assured mandatory outbreak protocols are in place. That includes twice-daily screening, widespread testing and enhanced cleaning.
The latest round of deaths puts the Southgate facility on par with the Mckenzie Towne Continuing Care Home outbreak in Calgary earlier this year, where 21 people died.
Hinshaw said a report on the Mckenzie Towne outbreak is still not completed but that officials learned of the difficulties of keeping seniors with cognitive issues away from others.
Meanwhile, a pilot project of testing asymptomatic Albertans at pharmacies will now be expanded, Hinshaw said. Individuals who want to be tested at a local pharmacy cannot show any symptoms and cannot have any close contacts of a known COVID-19 case.
“This project was a success — more than 10,000 people were safely tested at the pilot pharmacies over the last month,” said Hinshaw. “Based on this success, we’re expanding the program to any pharmacy that wants to offer testing and is able to meet the safety requirement.” Hinshaw said pharmacies can begin testing as soon as they are enrolled and have received supplies from provincial labs. A list of pharmacies currently participating can be found online.
She also said serology tests, that can determine if an individual has COVID-19 antibodies, have been conducted in the province. Nearly 9,400 random, anonymous blood samples were tested during the first week of June with one per cent of those tests showing antibodies.
Hinshaw said these results provide a baseline estimate and are not necessarily a representative sample of the whole population.
“It does not tell us if someone is currently sick or contagious and a positive serology test does not guarantee immunity from the virus,” said Hinshaw.
Hinshaw said she has not formally brought forward a recommendation to the province to mandate masks in public. A number of municipalities, including Edmonton, have introduced bylaws requiring people to wear face coverings in public.
She has said on multiple occasions people should wear masks while they are in public areas.
A total of 113 new cases were reported in Alberta Thursday, bringing the total number of active cases to 1,408.
There has been 10,716 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alberta and 9,113 people have recovered.
There are 91 Albertans currently in hospital, 18 of whom are in intensive care units.
THIS IS A STARK EXAMPLE OF THE DEVASTATION THIS VIRUS CAN CAUSE.