Retirement homes report COVID deaths

Ten deaths due to COVID-19, most of them in the Okanagan, have been reported across the Interior Health region since Christmas Eve.

That makes for a total of 28 people who’ve succumbed to the disease since the onset of the pandemic earlier this year.

“Our sincere condolences go to the families and friends of those who have lost their lives to COVID-19,” Interior Health president Susan Brown said in a news release on Tuesday.

Since Dec. 24, two Kelowna-area seniors’ complexes — Mountainview Village on KLO Road and Heritage Retirement Retirement Residence in Westbank — reported one death apiece.

There was one death at Village by the Station in Penticton, four at McKinney Place in Oliver, and three people living in the community died.

“As outbreaks continue to occur in long-term care facilities, it demonstrates again how deadly this virus can be, in particular to our elders,” Brown said. “I encourage everyone to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

This is the situation Wednesday afternoon at Okanagan care homes affected by the coronavirus:

— Mountainview Village, 16 cases; eight residents, eight staff

— Heritage Retirement Residence, 30 cases; 25 residents and five staff

— Village by the Station, nine cases; five residents and four staff

— McKinney Place, 75 cases; 54 residents, and 21 staff

— Noric House in Vernon, six cases; five residents and one staff

— Heritage Square in Vernon, 19 cases; 12 residents and seven staff.