VANCOUVER -- Health officials have declared a COVID-19 outbreak at a long-term care home in Richmond after two patients and two staff members there tested positive for the disease.
The outbreak on the third floor of the Richmond Lions Manor-Bridgeport is the second one to be declared at the facility, and it is already the most severe.
A previous outbreak on the facility's second floor was declared on Aug. 6 after a single staff member tested positive, according to data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
That outbreak was declared over just 12 days later, without any additional cases being detected.
The current outbreak has prompted the closure of the home to new admissions and transfers, according to a news release from Vancouver Coastal Health. All group activities at the facility have also been suspended.
Visits to the third floor of the home have also been suspended, with exceptions for essential care and compassionate visits at the end of a patient's life, the health authority says.
When the province released data on care home vaccinations in mid-February, 87 per cent of residents at Richmond Lions Manor-Bridgeport had received at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The province has not released data on staff vaccination levels within specific long-term facilities.
On Thursday, while announcing that B.C. was speeding up its administration of second doses of COVID-19 vaccines, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said she expected that B.C. would be done offering second doses to all care home staff and residents "in the next few days to weeks."
