A Waubaushene seniors’ residence is following public health protocols after a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak.
Bayview Retirement Home manager Tracy Franks said an employee tested positive for the virus and is now at home self-isolating.
“We had one staff member that tested positive and other than that we’re following public health guidelines and working with them to protect the rest of our residents,” she said, adding they don’t yet know how the employee contracted the virus.
An outbreak is declared at a long-term-care home when a single case is confirmed in a staff member or resident. Protocols following a positive test normally involve testing all residents and staff at the affected home.
The Tay Township residence is home to 29 residents while employing 10 staff.
Franks said staff are working with public health officials and making sure the situation doesn’t escalate.
“We’re ensuring that everybody's being checked and monitored. Franks told MidlandToday Wednesday afternoon. “We’re checking temps, we’re checking symptoms and anybody who has any symptoms will be tested.”
Besides the Waubaushene case, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is reporting another six cases of the virus in the region, including a Midland man in his 50s. Midland now has six confirmed cases with four recoveries while Penetanguishene and Tiny each have two cases involving residents who have since recovered. Tay has no other cases.
The local health unit has also confirmed there are now 11 cases of COVID-19 at Owen Hill Care Community in Barrie, including four staff members and seven residents. There have also been cases confirmed in 11 staff and at least 33 residents at Bradford Valley Care Community. Seven residents have died.
There have also been confirmed cases of a staff member at IOOF (Barrie) and two staff members at Woods Park Care Centre (Barrie) along with a case involving a resident at an unnamed group home in Bradford.
On a conference call Wednesday, health unit medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner explained why such facilities are susceptible to the virus spreading so quickly.
"We know that long-term care facility outbreaks are a phenomenon that's happening right now (across the province)," said Gardner, who added he's not surprised that institutional outbreaks and community transmission are dominating the new cases.
"We knew early on that it would be travel and then it would become established and then it would transmit in the community," he added. "We're at a different phase (now)."
Gardner said one of his main concerns around the pandemic at this juncture is in long-term care homes.
"We want to work very hard to avoid, as much as possible, the illness, the mortality and the heartache associated with that," he said. "On the whole, I think we've done a good job."
Part of the explanation for institutional outbreaks is the obvious: people living in long-term care homes are older and may have serious medical conditions, making them more vulnerable to the virus with possibly fatal consequences.
"If you create a population of people like that together, then there's a much greater likelihood that, if it gets in, there's going to be a huge or very serious effect on many people in that facility," Gardner said.
Another factor can include how a long-term care facility is designed.
"The older homes ... might have more than one individual per room, so it's difficult for people to have their privacy and to exercise ... the physical distancing that's required of us all to reduce risk," Gardner said, noting group homes, although smaller in size, present a similar risk with many people in close quarters.
"Correctional facilities are also a vulnerable situation, because of the large size and the potential for crowding of individuals," Gardner said. "Inmates in correctional facilities might very well have pre-existing medical conditions themselves that would put them at higher risk."
All totalled, there have been 267 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the Simcoe-Muskoka region. There are now eight people hospitalized, 148 recoveries, and 15 deaths. In total, there have been 91 community-acquired cases, 63 close-contact cases and 54 associated with travel.
-with files from Raymond Bowe
