Six more COVID-19 deaths hit long-term care homes

There have been 31 new cases of COVID-19 reported in B.C. since Friday and six more people in the province have died from the respiratory illness, the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, said Monday.

Henry said all six of the deaths were residents of long-term care facilities, four in the Vancouver Coastal Health region and two in the Fraser Health region.

“To lose six people, all in longterm care, over the last three days is a source of enormous grief for the families involved and for the caregivers involved,” said Adrian Dix, B.C.’s health minister.

One of the Fraser Health deaths actually occurred in June at the Langley Lodge, but the cause of death has only recently been attributed to COVID-19.

Last week, the B.C. government announced that it would be easing visiting restrictions at long-term care facilities, which have been at the centre of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the province.

Despite the recent deaths, Henry says it is still safe to proceed to partly open up the facilities and allow the province’s 32,000 longterm care residents to reunite with friends and family.

“I think the good news is that we have reduced the amount of transmission in our community so much so that we have very few people in hospital and we have very few people who are transmitting in our community,” she said.

“And that’s why we feel we’re at that balance where we need to allow more people to go into longterm care.”