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Another staff member tests positive for COVID-19 at Greenwood Court

A seventh member of staff at Greenwood Court in Stratford has tested positive for COVID-19, but there have been no new confirmed cases among residents for two weeks.

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As Ontario begins “proactive” testing in the province’s long-term care facilities, a seventh staff member at Stratford’s Greenwood Court has tested positive for COVID-19.

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Over the past three weeks, six residents – three of whom have died – and seven staff have now tested positive for coronavirus at the long-term-care and assisted-living centre in Stratford, which houses roughly 60 residents. Though there had been some hope among staff the outbreak was nearing its end last week after no additional positive tests had come back, this week two members of staff had to go into quarantine after receiving positive test results.

However, there haven’t been any additional confirmed cases among Greenwood residents for two weeks.

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“What we’re surmising is, because the staff have been using universal masking and more aggressive isolation and personal protective equipment and cleaning, etc., cases haven’t been transmitted to the residents,” Huron Perth medical officer of health Dr. Miriam Klassen said Thursday afternoon.

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“The staff cases are sometimes asymptomatic and they’ve been using the correct (personal protective equipment), but again we know that (the staff cases) could have been acquired before these measures were put in place. We are doing more testing (at Greenwood), so we’ll continue to see if more cases come up in both residents and staff.”

And while there is a high possibility the new staff cases were contracted directly from those already infected at Greenwood, Klassen pointed out it’s possible those cases were transmitted from people out in the community.

“These are also people who are going home, going grocery shopping and having other interactions, so sometimes people are acquiring it – and I’m not saying this is what’s happened — but it’s possible to reintroduce (the virus) from another source. … It would appear these cases were connected to the Greenwood outbreak, but for these two, again, there will be more investigations into them. It’s possible that there was some other exposure that one of those staff had, but it’s too soon for me to know for sure,” Klassen said.

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As of Thursday afternoon, 1,179 people across Huron Perth have been tested for COVID-19, with 881 of those tests coming back negative, 259 pending, and 39 positive. Of those positive cases:

  • Six are in Perth County (two in Perth East, two in Perth South, one in West Perth and one in North Perth), 22 are in Stratford, two are in St. Marys, and nine are in Huron County;
  • Four people have died – three Greenwood Court residents and a St. Marys grocer – while a total of 22 people across Huron Perth have recovered, four from Perth County, 10 from Stratford, one in St. Marys, and seven in Huron County;
  • One is under the age of 20, two are in their 20s, four in their 30s, four in their 40s, eight are in their 50s, 12 in their 60s, three in their 70s, and five are 80 or older;
  • 26 are female and 13 are male; and
  • 14 cases are in long-term care homes -–six residents and seven staff at Greenwood Court in Stratford and one resident at Hillside Manor in Sebringville, who has since recovered.
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For up-to-date COVID-19 numbers in Huron Perth, visit www.hpph.ca/en/health-matters/covid-19-in-huron-and-perth.

On Wednesday, the province announced an aggressive uptick in testing of both symptomatic and asymptomatic residents and staff, and the implementation of advanced outbreak-control measures, in long-term care homes across the province, with an initial focus on those experiencing outbreaks.

“We’re working with our local health-care and long-term-care partners to roll out this increased testing of residents and staff,” Klassen said. “We will be prioritizing homes in outbreak and those homes identified to be potentially at higher risk, but (we) eventually plan to get through all the homes.”

As of Wednesday’s announcement, 11,600 residents in long-term care across the province had been tested for COVID-19. The Ministry of Long Term Care reported Thursday 132 care homes in outbreak, 2,189 confirmed cases among residents, 1,058 confirmed cases among staff, 516 resident deaths, and less than five staff deaths.

gsimmons@postmedia.com

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