VANCOUVER

5 COVID-19 outbreaks declared at Lower Mainland care homes

Ian Holliday CTVNewsVancouver.ca Journalist

Published Thursday, October 29, 2020 5:10PM PDT

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP)

Text:

VANCOUVER -- Health officials in B.C. announced five more outbreaks of COVID-19 in care homes in the Lower Mainland Thursday, bringing the total number of health-care facilities with cases of the disease to 26.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry announced four of the outbreaks during her live briefing on the coronavirus pandemic in the afternoon. The fifth was included in the written statement released by the Ministry of Health after the briefing ended.

Two of the affected facilities are in the Fraser Health region, while the other three are in Vancouver.

"In three of the four cases it's been a single health care worker that was identified early," said Henry, who described the early detection as a reflection of the important work done by public health teams.

The four affected care homes Henry was referring to are Gateway Assisted Living for Seniors in Surrey, Mayfair Terrace Retirement Residence in Port Coquitlam, Lakeview Care Centre in Vancouver and the Louis Brier Home and Hospital, also in Vancouver.

In a news release on the two outbreaks in its region, Fraser Health said a resident at Mayfair Terrace had tested positive for COVID-19, while the person who tested positive at Gateway Assisted Living is a staff member.

Enhanced control measures are in place at both locations, the health authority said in its statement, adding that it is working to identify anyone who may have been exposed at each facility.

Vancouver Coastal Health, where Lakeview Care Centre and the Louis Brier Home are located, did not issue a news release about those outbreaks, but it did add the pair to its outbreak bulletin. According to the bulletin, outbreak protocols were put in place at both facilities on Tuesday.

The VCH outbreak bulletin also indicates that outbreak restrictions were put in place at Yaletown House in Vancouver on Wednesday. The facility, which had a previous outbreak declared over earlier this month, was not mentioned in Henry's update, but it was included in the written statement from the Ministry of Health later in the afternoon.

Also not included in the provincial health officer's update was the end of the outbreak at Good Samaritan Victoria Heights in New Westminster, which Fraser Health announced in its statement Thursday.

Henry did mention the end of the outbreak at Zion Park Manor in Surrey, which Fraser Health announced in a news release Wednesday afternoon.