COVID-19 outbreak declared at Hollyburn House in West Vancouver

A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at a licensed long-term care unit within Hollyburn House in West Vancouver, after one resident and one staff member tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak was declared June 21.

According to Vancouver Coastal Health, the outbreak is contained to the long-term care unit; the assisted living and independent living areas of the facility are not impacted.

Outbreak precautions have been put in place at the long-term care unit, which means it is now closed to new admissions and transfers and all group activities have been suspended. Residents on affected units are also being tested for COVID, in consultation with public health, according to a statement by Revera, which owns the seniors home.

Visits to the long-term care unit have also been suspended except for essential care and end of life visits.

Both Vancouver Coastal Health and Revera refused to say whether either of the two people who tested positive for COVID-19 were vaccinated.

"All the residents of Hollyburn House who have consented and are able to be vaccinated have received their first and second doses. Almost all the staff have also had their first dose, and a large majority of staff are fully vaccinated," according to a statement by Revera's chief medical officer Dr. Rhonda Collins.

According to B.C.’s Centre for Disease Control, 65 of 69 residents at Hollyburn House – or 94 per cent of residents – had been vaccinated as of February this year. Vancouver Coastal Health and the Ministry of Health have so far refused to provide rates of vaccination among care workers in long-term care and assisted living facilities on the North Shore.

According to Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s medical health officer, vaccination cuts the rates of infection by about 80 per cent. “So while the risk goes down dramatically, it’s not zero,” she said recently.

According to data released by Henry, the risk of contracting COVID-19 and becoming seriously ill following vaccination was much higher among older people – especially those over 80 – than it was among younger people. “So that still tells us that not everybody mounts a strong immune response,” she said.

Hollyburn House is a private-pay seniors home owned and operated by Revera Inc.