Oakview Place deals with second staff COVID-19 case

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This article was published 25/03/2021 (1743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A second staff member at a Winnipeg personal care home has tested positive for COVID-19.

Extendicare Oakview Place confirmed Wednesday a worker had received a positive test result and was isolating at home, just days after another staff member had tested positive last week.

An Extendicare spokeswoman said the second case was “determined to be a community-acquired case to the first case.”

No residents at the care home have tested positive.

It’s similar to the situation at Extendicare Tuxedo Villa, where a resident tested positive earlier this week while being treated in hospital. The spokeswoman said residents and staff have all tested negative for the virus at the Corydon Avenue facility.

“We will continue to take every measure possible to protect our residents, keep our families informed, and support our team members until the threat of the pandemic subsides,” she said.

A third senior care facility in the city, River East (where Extendicare provides management support), had two recent positive test results for residents. Both cases have been declared resolved and no staff members had tested positive.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said earlier this week one resident and three staff members at personal care homes in the city had tested positive for the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K.

While it is known one resident and one staff member at Heritage Lodge had tested positive for the variant, the WRHA is not identifying the location of the other two cases (both are staff members).

Jason Kindrachuk, a virologist with the University of Manitoba currently on a work placement in Saskatchewan, said while COVID-19 cases in care homes made for a scary time last fall, when the virus brought death and illness to hundreds of residents, they are in a better position now.

“People who have been vaccinated are in a real good position now,” said Kindrachuk.

“With the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, we have 95 per cent protection… For seniors, so far, we haven’t seen rampant outbreaks.”

Kindrachuk said the vaccine not only reduces the chances a senior will die or end up having to be hospitalized, there is some evidence it is also decreasing the spread of the virus.

“These are amazingly good vaccines,” he said. “When they got sick before they got really, really sick. But that doesn’t happen now.

“For seniors, it is like night and day, the change.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca