As of Monday, 73 of the 97 residents who tested positive to COVID since the outbreak started on October 9 had their cases resolved. Only five of the 63 staff cases remained active. Twelve residents died due to COVID while another seven died from unrelated issues during the outbreak, the deadliest in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit’s territory since the pandemic began.
Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) Medical Officer of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis said those seven unrelated deaths may have been residents whose COVID cases had been considered resolved. He said some had been in palliative care before they contracted the virus.
Red Cross personnel have assisted at the residence due to staffing shortages. Some of the staff members who had recovered from COVID had since returned to work.
Speaking at a United Counties of Prescott and Russell committee of the whole meeting last Tuesday, Prescott and Russell Residence administrator Alexandre Gorman said the dropping rate of transmission and number of resolved cases had been encouraging.
Three of the six units within the Hawkesbury residence were considered “green”, with no active cases, where some non-essential services were expected to return in the coming days. “We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Gorman said. “This is very good news for our residents. We will be in contact with our service providers to develop a strategy.”
Two units were “yellow”, which had some cases that may remain contagious, and one was red. Gorman said it may be some time before the red units was cleared.
“It will take us a little bit more time to go to green [in the remaining red unit], there are still a lot of cases that are active and contagious,” he said. “We really have to be careful and we have to put the right PPE on,” he said.
Each resident’s power of attorney was called each week with an update on their health status, while families were contacted if that status changed. Gorman said families were allowed on site if the resident was very ill or close to the end of their life.
