A Coquitlam assisted living facility has announced another death of a resident due to COVID-19 over the weekend.
In a message sent to family members of residents, the care home’s management announced Sunday, May 3, that a fourth resident had passed away.
As of Sunday, seven residents remained infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and all of them are in isolation on the first floor, according to the correspondence.
“We continue to closely monitor residents, and should anyone be symptomatic, they are swabbed, placed in isolation as a precaution until lab results are known, and families are informed,” wrote Belinda Ditangan, executive assistant to the chief operating officer of West Coast Seniors Housing Management, which oversees the facility.
First reported March 20, the Dufferin Care Centre has become the site of the largest publicly-acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak at a care home or assisted living facility in the Fraser Health region. According to data obtained from the Ministry of Health, Dufferin has now registered 22 cases of COVID-19, in addition to the four deaths. Of the 14 cases traced to residents and eight to staff, half have recovered. Another outbreak at the Shaughnessy Care Centre in Port Coquitlam was declared over April 22 following 14 days without a new case, but not before the novel coronavirus took one resident’s life and infected at least three others.
As the virus spread to scores of workers and residents, the Dufferin facility has, at times, struggled to maintain staffing, and according to management, four staff members of the facility remain in self-isolation at home.
As of Sunday, Dufferin remained short-staffed in their dietary and recreation departments and continued to bring in prepared food from an outside catering company.
Like all senior care facilities in the province, personal protective equipment is always a concern and the facility said it will “continue to monitor our supplies closely.”
“The community remains on mandatory lockdown as per the Order of the Medical Health Officer,” Ditangan wrote family members of the home’s residents.
In response to reports that care aides have contributed to the spread of the virus as they move from one facility to the next, the Dufferin representative said they are now following Dr. Bonnie Henry’s order to stop sharing staff.
Tuesday, Fraser Health’s top doctor, Dr. Martin Lavoie, told the Tri-City News mandatory one-site policy for care aids will go into effect for all sites when schedules are finalized by May 8.
So far, approximately 41 of 141 sites have implemented their new schedules with the one-site policy, and by the end of the week, all seniors’ care sites will have staffing plans in place, according to Lavoie.
— with files from Diane Strandberg
