Seven residents have died at a Scarborough, Ont., long-term care home in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak, while 136 other residents and 66 staff members have tested positive for the virus, said the company that owns and operates the facility.
Sienna Senior Living said on its website that the current outbreak at Rockcliffe Care Community, 3015 Lawrence Avenue E., west of McCowan Road, began on Nov. 2. The home has 204 beds. It confirmed the deaths and latest case numbers in an email on Saturday.
“We are grateful to our partners and team members who are working very hard to protect the health of our residents during the second wave of the pandemic. The safety of everyone in our residences is our highest priority as the province experiences unprecedented rates of COVID-19,” Nadia Daniell-Colarossi, manager of media relations for Sienna, said in the email.
Daniell-Colarossi provided no details of the deaths, but expressed condolences to relatives.
The home is working with Toronto Public Health, Scarborough Health Network and Sienna’s physician experts, Dr. Andrea Moser, chief medical officer, and Dr. Allison McGeer, chief infection prevention and control consultant, to respond to the outbreak, Daniell-Colarossi said.
Measures to reduce further spread of the virus at Rockcliffe include:
Full contact and droplet precautions throughout the building.
Residents must remain in their rooms, including for meals.
Residents may only leave Rockcliffe for essential medical appointments.
Group programming is paused until further notice.
Only essential caregivers are permitted in the residence.
Team members are working in cohorts so they only provide care to a specific group of residents.
“Many lessons were taken from the beginning of the pandemic and in preparing for this second wave, our focus was to enhance our expertise, grow our personal protective equipment (PPE) supply, reinforce our infection prevention and control practices, invest in our residences, support the frontlines, and strengthen communications with residents and families,” Daniell-Colarossi said.
She said staff members are communicating with families through virtual town halls, telephone, email and newsletter updates to keep them up-to-date about measures being implemented to control the outbreak.
The home is located across the street from Scarborough General Hospital.
“Rockcliffe opened its doors in 1972 and, because of the cultural diversity of the 204 residents, is often referred to as Sienna’s very own ‘United Nations,'” its website said.
WATCH | How long-term care homes are battling the second wave of COVID-19:
Long-term care homes are battling this second wave of COVID-19 — which is proving difficult. Ninety-three long-term care homes across Ontario are reporting outbreaks with hundreds of residents infected with the virus. Ali Chiasson has more. 2:35
Dr. Vinita Dubey, associate medical officer of health for Toronto Public Health (TPH), said in an email on Saturday that the public health unit was notified of the first case at Rockcliffe Care Community on Oct. 30.
She said TPH took action immediately to make sure “outbreak measures” were put in place to protect residents and staff. The public health unit is continuing to investigate.
To prevent further spread of COVID-19 at the facility, TPH has worked with the long-term care home to implement the following:
Ensure twice a day screening of residents and staff remains in place to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and to identify new infections as early as possible.
Implement physical distancing measures and cancel all group activities.
Enhancing cleaning, particularly for frequently touched surfaces.
Work to make sure that personal protective equipment (PPE) continues to be used appropriately to minimize health risks.
Restrict staff from working on more than one unit within the facility.
“TPH works with all institutions when cases are identified to ensure that prevention measures are in place to prevent further virus spread and assesses the potential for ongoing risk of transmission to staff and vulnerable residents in these settings,” Dubey said.
She said all cases and their close contacts are also told to go into isolation for 14 days.
Signs direct scheduled visitors at the rear of Rockcliffe Care Community. The long-term care home is one of 100 in Ontario and one of 26 in Toronto with an active COVID-19 outbreak as of Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (Michael Charles Cole/CBC)
“We are very concerned about all COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care homes (LTCH), and their potentially devastating impact on our parents, our grandparents and our loved ones,” she said.
“We know that any infectious disease can spread easier and faster in congregate settings, but LTCHs are especially concerning for COVID-19 because these residents are generally older, more vulnerable to infection due to compromised immune systems, or chronic health conditions.”
Vulnerable people at risk when virus spreads, doctor says
Earlier this week, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, had warned that the city must take more steps to prevent people, including those in long-term care homes, from getting sick and dying due to COVID-19. Community transmission can lead to further spread in institutions, she said.
“If action is not taken we can expect to see even more cases of COVID-19, which means more illness and more death. These infections could easily spread further through the health care system, to the long-term care system, to schools and to workplaces,” De Villa said on Tuesday.
“To everyone in Toronto, I want to warn you in the plainest possible terms that COVID-19 is out there at levels we have not seen before. You should assume it is everywhere and that without proper precautions and protections, you are at risk of infection,” she continued.
“We can’t guarantee what the course of illness looks like. We can’t predict what the long-term effects might be. People recover from it who you wouldn’t expect to live through it. And people you’d think would come through it can die instead.”
The home is located across the street from Scarborough General Hospital. (Michael Charles Cole/CBC)
Home inspected due to complaints, critical incidents
Rockcliffe Care Community is one of 100 long-term care homes in Ontario and one of 26 in Toronto with an active COVID-19 outbreak as of Saturday.
Inspectors with the Ontario long-term care ministry inspected the home due to complaints and critical incidents on July 21, Feb. 21, Jan. 20 and Jan. 7 this year.
Toronto has had a cumulative total of 34,222 COVID-19 cases as of Friday at 2 p.m., with 28,450 marked as recovered, A total of 1,448 people have died of the virus in Toronto, while 164 are currently in hospital.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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