Officials declare Lynn Valley outbreak over
North Van care centre, which recorded Canada’s first COVID-19 death, still ‘on guard’ for virus
The provincial health officer cried when she announced, back in early March, the first COVID-19 outbreak in a longterm care home in Canada, as Dr. Bonnie Henry was so worried about the deadly virus preying on its vulnerable residents.
The Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver would go on to have the worst seniors’ home outbreak in B.C., and would also record Canada’s first coronavirus death: a male resident who died on March 8.
There was mounting pressure inside the care home at that time — from worried residents and their anxious families, and from scared staff who scrambled to respond to the fast-spreading virus.
“For the first week or so it was very, very, very tough,” Lynn Valley’s director of care, Betty Wills, said in her first interview since the outbreak began two months ago. “It was really scary because of the unknown factor. We’ve had outbreaks before, but this one is very different. I went through SARS, and this is totally different . ... I’ve (never) seen as much fear in my whole career.”
Over the last two months at the 204-bed facility, 79 staff and residents tested positive for the virus, and 20 residents died. The outbreak at the care home was declared over on Monday after 28 straight days of no new confirmed cases.
“We have a high degree of confidence that there is not currently a circulating COVID infection within the facility,” Dr. Michael Schwandt, a medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said Tuesday.
The announcement left Wills cautiously optimistic. “The whole team was actually celebrating. And yet we are still on guard.”
Indeed, COVID-19 has hit seniors’ centres hard in B.C., and even harder in provinces such as Quebec and Ontario.
As of Tuesday, 72 of the 121 deaths in B.C. have been residents of long-term care facilities. About 35 seniors’ homes have had coronavirus infections.
Haro Park in the city’s West End, which had the second-worst number of COVID infections and 11 deaths, says all its cases have recovered, but the outbreak there hasn’t been declared over yet.
The lockdown on visitors to seniors’ facilities continues, so families will still not be able to enter the Lynn Valley centre. But the end of the outbreak gives Diane Barnhill hope her mother, 96, a resident of the home, will remain virus-free.
“I’m quite relieved,” she said Tuesday. “I’m just so grateful that at her age,
because she would be very vulnerable, that she has been able to avoid being affected.”
Some Lynn Valley staff have publicly complained the home was too slow to respond to the outbreak.
Vancouver Coastal Health of officials on Tuesday defended their response at the site, arguing it reduced the spread of the virus in a second wing and helped to achieve better outcomes in other care homes.
On March 7, a VCH support team was created to respond to the Lynn Valley outbreak, and that initiative morphed into “SWAT and Rapid Response teams” that were then used in other VCH longterm care facilities.
We’ve had outbreaks before, but this one is very different ... I’ve (never) seen as much fear in my whole career.”
Betty Wills