“The home itself is going to be re-tested,” said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, chief medical officer for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU), during his Thursday (June 11) teleconference with regional media.

Dr. Roumeliotis confirmed that the nursing home is listed once more as an outbreak site after a positive test result for COVID-19 came back for one of the staff.

The employee had undergone routine testing for the disease and at that time did not show any symptoms. But the test result came back positive and the employee is now in self-isolation. The EOHU is doing a “back trace” investigation to determine who the staff member may have been in contact with during the period between the test and when the results came back.

All other staff at the nursing home and all of the residents there will undergo COVID-19 testing again Friday. Doctors and nurses from Hawkesbury and District General Hospital will assist the EOHU with the re-testing and will also provide support if needed for nursing home staff in caring for staff.

The nursing home is now subject to a 14-day monitoring period. If there are no other confirmed cases of COVID-19 during that period, that will mean the end of the second outbreak status for Pinecrest.

The original outbreak at Pinecrest continued for several weeks from mid-April to the end of May, with 11 of the senior residents at the nursing home dying due to COVID-19 complications.