THUNDER BAY - With a facility-wide outbreak of COVID-19 at a local long-term care home, Superior North EMS paramedics are stepping in to assist with testing to help mitigate the spread.
On Thursday, volunteers with Superior North EMS were conducting tests for the approximately 140 staff at the Southbridge Roseview Manor Long-term Care Home.
“Because of the outbreak, the staff they have on duty right now are very overworked and under a lot of stress, so we are going to do whatever we can to help them out,” said Shane Muir Superior north EMS COVID-19 task force commander.
As of Thursday, there are 16 residents who have tested positive and four staff members.
Joanne Lent, Executive Director at Southbridge Roseview, said in a statement two residents have been sent to hospital but none of them have tested positive for COVID-19 at this time.
"We continue to deploy all outbreak response measures including hiring more than 50 new staff to support our existing care team, testing staff every five days, cohorting all COVID-positive residents, assigning staff to work in dedicated areas of the home and working closely with public health, the LHIN, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Ontario Health,” she said.
In the early stages of the pandemic, Superior North EMS provided training to staff to conduct their own testing. But Muir said in order to allow staff to focus on testing residents Superior North EMS is providing staff testing.
“Because of the outbreak they have increased demand and limited capacity and those who normally do the testing are focusing on the residents and providing proper care, so we will help with the staff testing,” he said.
Demand for testing has significantly increased in the last month with cases of COVID-19 surging in the district. There are 67 active cases according to the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
Superior North EMS is conducting more than 200 tests a day and is also participating in surveillance testing for vulnerable areas of the population and congregate living settings.
Muir said several long-term care facilities are conducting their own testing, though they do assist facilities in the city as well.
“We’ve been focusing on areas where they don’t have medical staff on site,” he said. “We’re helping out with any congregate settings where they may not have qualified nurses to do the testing. We like to focus on those areas because they don’t have that help.”
Tests on staff at Roseview are considered expedited tests and results are expected in at least 48 hours. But Muir said local labs are also dealing with increasing demand.
“We know this will be a community focus. It will be a priority for us and everyone is working together to manage the outbreak at Roseview,” he said.
“We really want to maintain our health system capacity throughout the pandemic. One way we can do that is by focusing on the ground level and providing that sample collection for the staff members here and isolate those who may have been in contact with the virus and mitigate the spread.”
The Thunder Bay District is in the yellow or protect classification under the province’s COVID-19 response framework. Muir said if the district moves to orange testing at congregate living spaces will change from bi-weekly to weekly.
Muir added Superior North EMS will continue to help Roseview with testing if required and the paramedics have been more than willing to step forward to assist.
“It was very easy to get volunteers to help out with the outbreak,” he said. “Paramedics were amazing, they stepped up and I feel very privileged to work with such a great group of people who were willing to put themselves on the line and help out in any capacity they can.”