Personal-care homes across city dealing with COVID outbreaks

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This article was published 05/05/2022 (868 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It will be a quiet Mother’s Day weekend at a north Winnipeg personal-care home that has been battling stubborn COVID-19 outbreaks for the past six weeks.

Six residents at Holy Family Home have died and 112 have tested positive since the first two cases appeared March 23.

There are currently six different active outbreaks spread through various units in the sprawling 317-bed facility located on Main Street between Redwood and Aberdeen avenues, CEO Tara-Lee Proctor said, adding 30 staff members who have also tested positive are isolating at home.

Holy Family is restricting access to designated family caregivers, putting a damper on many planned Mother’s Day celebrations.

“COVID-19 activity remains prevalent in the community and the absence of restrictions outside of our doors preventing infection within the home becomes even more challenging,” Proctor said.

Most residents have received three vaccine doses, she said, adding the home is working on getting fourth doses to people who are eligible soon. And she said most of the residents who have tested positive recently are dealing with generally mild symptoms.

There are currently 16 personal-care homes in the city dealing with active COVID-19 outbreaks, WRHA spokeswoman Bobbi-Jo Stanley said. There have been 21 associated deaths.

“It is important to note that deaths are reflected in this count if residents who passed away tested positive for COVID, but not all are necessarily due to COVID,” Stanley said.

Jan Legeros, executive director of the Long Term and Continuing Care Association of Manitoba, said the virus continues to circulate through the community.

“There are more tragedies in the (care) homes, but thankfully not as numerous as in the first and second waves before we had the vaccines,” Legeros said.

“But it’s still tragic when people get COVID — even with a mild case. They can get long-COVID symptoms and we have many residents who now have cardiac issues they didn’t have before, and breathing issues now.

“It is really important for people to realize COVID is still out there. That’s why we’re getting cases in long term care; it’s because of the really high community transmission.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca