At least five seniors at have died and more than 45 have become sick in the outbreak of COVID-19 at West Vancouver’s Capilano Care Centre.
In a letter sent to families of residents this past weekend, executive director of the home Connie Luck said five residents have recently died at the care home.
As of Sunday, 40 residents were still sick with the virus and 28 staff were still testing positive for the virus, according to the letter. A further 20 staff who previously tested positive for the virus had been cleared to return to work.
While the outbreak continues, family members have not been permitted to visit the care home, except for end-of-life visits.
The Capilano Care Centre is operated by a private company, Revera, under contract to the government, and has both private and shared rooms. About half of the rooms at the care home are shared.
A COVID-19 outbreak was first declared at the 205-bed seniors home on Nov. 9 after two staff members at the home on Clyde Avenue tested positive for the virus.
Since then, the outbreak has continued to grow.
The Capilano outbreak is one of 56 outbreaks at long-term care homes in the province, most of those in the Lower Mainland. Currently Capilano is the only care home on the North Shore where an outbreak has been declared.
Lions Gate Hospital is also in the midst of an outbreak, although Vancouver Coastal Health has not released any details on how many patients and staff are sick, or how many people have died.
The local outbreaks come at what Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s medical health officer, has described as a particularly challenging time in the second wave of the pandemic. The growing number of cases in the Lower Mainland, particularly in the Fraser Health region, where many health care workers live, has resulted in the virus being introduced into many seniors’ homes. Most of the time, the workers who have brought the virus in have not had any symptoms of illness or have had symptoms so mild, they have not been recognized.
Some groups have called for rapid testing at care homes to pick up more potential cases, but Henry has so far expressed doubts about the accuracy of those tests as well as the capacity to test everyone who works in long-term care every day.
Special precautions currently in place at Capilano Care Centre include limiting the number of staff who can be in a break room, limiting staff to working on one floor of the care home, and requiring masks to be worn at all times except when eating.
On Monday, Henry announced 46 people had died of COVID-19 over three days this past weekend, the worst three-day death toll from virus in the province so far. On Tuesday, she announced another 16 people had died.
About 80 per cent of those who died lived in long-term care, said Henry.
Province wide, B.C. has been clocking anywhere from 600 to 750 new cases of COVID-19 a day.
There have been over 33,238 cases of the virus reported in the province since the pandemic began, including 336 people who are currently in hospital. Since January 457 people have died of the virus in B.C.
