Outbreak over at W. Kelowna home
A COVID-19 outbreak at a West Kelowna care facility that resulted in the deaths of four residents has been declared over.
No other residents at the Heritage Retirement Residence on Brown Road in Westbank have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 28 days, Interior Health says.
“I’m happy to declare another COVID-19 outbreak over,” Dr. Albert de Villiers, IH’s chief medical health officer, said in a news release.
There were 46 cases of COVID-19 at Heritage Retirement Residence; 41 residents and five staff.
All eligible residents and staff at the building have now been offered their first dose of a COVID19 vaccine.
On Monday, the president and CEO of Diversicare Canada, the company that owns Heritage Retirement Residence and 11 other facilities across Canada, posted a message on the company’s website.
“Seventy percent of (our) residents nationwide have had their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as have a high percentage of frontline team members,” David Bird wrote.
“We appreciate our caring, resourceful, and resilient team members for all their hard work, tireless service, and support of our residents,” Bird said. “Our residents and family members are an amazing group of patient and understanding people who have shown great flexibility and resiliency in these unusual and unprecedented times.”
The IH website lists five active outbreaks of COVID-19 at longterm care homes. They are:
— Noric House in Vernon (nine resident deaths; 39 resident cases; 29 staff cases)
— Creekside Landing in Vernon (one resident death; 25 resident cases; 15 staff cases)
— Heritage Square in Vernon (nine resident deaths; 47 resident cases; 21 staff cases)
— Sunnybank in Oliver (five resident deaths; 27 resident cases; 10 staff cases)
— Brocklehurst Gemstone Care Centre in Kamloops (two resident deaths; 17 resident cases; eight staff cases).