THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay’s medical officer of health is hopeful the worst is over when it comes to a major COVID-19 outbreak at Southbridge Roseview, a local long-term care home.
More than 50 residents and staff have tested positive since the outbreak was first announced on Nov. 18, with the majority of those cases reported over the past week.
Dr. Janet DeMille, who heads the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, expressed confidence in how Southbridge Care Homes was managing the outbreak on Monday.
All residents at the home, which has 157 beds, are set to be retested for the virus Tuesday.
DeMille said she’d be surprised if that results in another spike in cases like that seen Sunday, when Southbridge announced 27 new cases.
“I would hope to say that’s behind us,” DeMille said Monday. “I can’t imagine that we’ll see those sorts of numbers again. There are measures that have been put in place, and certainly a heightened level of vigilance. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, if we did see more positive results.”
Southbridge is working with the health unit, Ontario Health, and the provincial Ministry of Long-Term Care to contain the outbreak.
The company has brought in significant staffing reinforcements from outside the city, DeMille noted, including some with experience managing COVID-19 outbreaks (all had to be tested before entering the home).
“I think that’s what it really takes to get through an outbreak like this… to ensure that they have the staff, the staff are supported, [and] there’s strong surveillance,” she said. “I really feel there’s a lot of support that’s going to help get through this.”
The health unit has not yet determined how the virus was first introduced to the home. DeMille noted the outbreak did not necessarily originate with the staff member who first tested positive on Nov. 18.
“We’re not convinced it was the first staff person who [tested] positive that actually introduced it to the home,” she said. “We explored other potential avenues where there could have been exposure.”
DeMille declined to comment further on those possibilities, saying it would amount to speculation.
The virus could have entered the home due to gaps in COVID-19 measures at the home, she later said, but did not cite any particular shortcomings in its policies or practices.
“It could spread because there are deficiencies with infection prevention and control measures – all the measures taken individually by staff who are interacting with the residents, and some of those other measures," she said. "That’s how, in general, virus spreads.”
The continuing uncertainty over what led to the city’s largest outbreak so far speaks to the difficulties in preventing and containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, she said.
“There’s a lot of measures [in place at long-term care homes], but this virus is really tricky – it can spread even when people don’t have any symptoms,” she said.
“It’s always an opportunity to look back – spread happens, and then you have to detect that it’s happening. [We’re] looking at the testing and how quickly it was done, because that could have helped us perhaps identify it a little bit sooner.”
DeMille said the health unit was not aware of COVID-19 cases in any other Thunder Bay long-term care homes as of Monday afternoon.
