Several care homes in B.C. Interior battling COVID-19 outbreaks amid region's case surge

Vancouver -

The surging COVID-19 case numbers in B.C.'s Interior Health region appear to be spilling over into long-term care homes.

Three new outbreaks have been declared in local long-term care facilities since Monday, according to the Interior Health website.

Two of the homes – Cottonwoods Care Centre and Brookhaven Care Centre – are in Kelowna, where increasing COVID-19 transmission recently prompted a renewed indoor mask mandate for the Central Okanagan.

The other outbreak was declared at Kootenay Street Village in Cranbrook. A fourth outbreak discovered last month at Nelson Jubilee Manor, another long-term care facility in the region, remains active.

Details on the number of cases confirmed at each facility are not available on the Interior Health website. CTV News has reached out to the health authority for more information, including on how COVID-19 might have been introduced into the homes and whether the concerning Delta variant has been detected at any of them.

As recently as July 18, B.C. health officials were celebrating more than a week without a single outbreak at a long-term care home or assisted living facility anywhere in the province.

Case numbers have been surging since then, particularly in the Interior Health region, which accounts for 945 of B.C.'s 1,764 active coronavirus cases.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Tuesday that the "vast majority" of recent cases involve people who have not been immunized against the disease.

Some families with loved ones in long-term care have expressed concerns at the lack of transparency around staff vaccination rates. The B.C. Care Providers Association recently said there are some facilities where only 70 per cent of employees are vaccinated – well below the province-wide immunization rate for eligible residents – but the government has repeatedly declined to provide site-specific numbers to the public.

There have also been calls for mandatory vaccinations of care home workers who work with vulnerable residents, including from seniors advocate Isobel Mackenzie.

Henry has said B.C. will not require care home employees to get immunized against COVID-19, but that those who don't get vaccinated will be required to keep wearing masks at work and submitting to regular testing.

She also recently alluded to possible "consequences" for those who continue refusing the vaccine.