COVID-19 testing for long-term care, retirement home residents, staff expands
Public health initiative to combat outbreaks, while Ford calls situation in residences a ‘wildfire’
In response to the growing COVID-19 crisis in long-term care and retirement homes, Niagara’s public health department has begun testing people not showing signs of coronavirus infections — and finding new cases as a result.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, the region’s acting medical officer of health, said staff and residents in five homes with declared outbreaks are being tested for the virus in an effort to stem the rising tide of infections connected to the majority of local pandemic deaths.
Of five residences with declared outbreaks, three — Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls, and Seasons Retirement Community and Royal Rose both in Welland — have seen multiple deaths and significant numbers of residents and staff infected by the potentially deadly virus.
“Because there are declared outbreaks, we can prioritize testing for those residents,” said Hirji, who said outbreaks are the health department’s top COVID-19 priority.
“We have found, in these cases, some positive tests results from asymptomatic people.”
There are also outbreaks declared at Albright Manor in Beamsville and Shalom Manor in Grimsby. Numbers of cases at these homes were not immediately available Tuesday.
An outbreak at Rapelje Lodge in Welland was declared over Tuesday, Hirji said.
The health department’s new testing regime — it follows Monday’s announcement of its new response team designed to help homes contain outbreaks — came the same day the province announced it is crafting a plan for homes across Ontario.
Premier Doug Ford said despite efforts to create an “iron ring” around seniors, COVID-19 is like a “wildfire” in residences across the province. Among new measures being enforced by Queen’s Park is limiting the number of homes a caregiver can be employed by to one.
It has been common for personal support workers to work in multiple homes at once — a result of low wages, Hirji said earlier this week. As a consequence, PSWs have become a vector for the spread of the novel coronavirus as they move between homes.
Ford also said Tuesday “hospital-based teams” will be sent to long-term care homes to help fight outbreaks.
Even as the province rolls out new efforts to cope with outbreaks, Niagara’s two New Democrat MPPs — Niagara Centre’s Jeff Burch and Niagara Falls’ Wayne Gates — are calling for an investigation into the outbreak at Lundy Manor.
Niagara’s rate of new COVID-19 cases continued its levelling-off trend Tuesday, with13 new cases confirmed — a number consistent with the growth rate of last week. Much of that growth is directly connected to the outbreaks, Hirji said.
That brings the total number of Niagara COVID-19 cases since March 13 to 263, with 93 cases having been resolved.
Royal Rose, Seasons and Lundy Manor reported a combined 21 residents with COVID-19 had died as of Tuesday. That brings the known total of deaths in Niagara to 22. The exact figure is unclear as public health and the long-term care homes do not publicly report deaths daily.
The health department does release a total on a weekly basis.
There are at least 148 active COVID-19 cases in Niagara.
Newly released public health data showed travel-related cases of COVID-19 in Niagara all but stopped appearing by the end of March, but local transmission of the virus started to rise rapidly after that point. Seventy-seven per cent of cases for which the source of local transmission is known involves people who are 80 or older, and a majority of those people live in long-term care or residences or seniors homes.
The outbreaks have also resulted in more health-care workers being infected by COVID-19. Hirji said this shows physical distancing and hygiene measures are making a significant dent in the spread of COVID-19.
“But this is not over by a long shot,” he said, noting high number of cases along Niagara’s borders in the United States and in other Ontario jurisdictions. “If we back off now, we would see the number of cases in Niagara rise.”