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New variant behind massive COVID-19 outbreak at Ontario LTC home - CTV News

New variant behind massive COVID-19 outbreak at Ontario LTC home - CTV News

New variant behind massive COVID-19 outbreak at Ontario LTC home - CTV News
Jan 22, 2021 3 mins, 9 secs

The mystery of why virtually all of the seniors and 74 workers became infected with COVID-19 at Roberta Place long-term care is now becoming clear -- one of the new variants of the novel coronavirus was behind the outbreak.

have now been confirmed to be infected with one of the new and highly contagious variants.

In the meantime, the virus has swept through the long-term care home, infecting 94 per cent of the residents.

The speed of the outbreak was breathtaking, Rinas said, and she knew something was different.

The care home had managed to largely avoid COVID-19 during the first wave, she said, and “it just doesn’t make sense” that the entire home would become infected so quickly this time around.

One hundred and twenty-two residents have active cases of COVID-19.

“This first discovered case is one of the six cases that have tested positive for the mutation that is most common in the various streams,” Lee said

“If we had vaccines a month before Saturday, I think this outbreak would be a lot less severe.”

He said they got Pfizer vaccines into the care home starting this past Saturday

Graham believes if the long-term care home had received vaccines earlier, it could’ve made a difference

“It comes down to prioritizing with the government, and once again I feel that, they’ve been down this road 11 months ago, it’s disappointing that the long-term care facilities […] weren’t made a priority

“Right now over 40 per cent of our long-term care homes and then well over 100 additional retirement homes are currently in outbreak,” Dr

In fact, we actually think we're going to eclipse the number of deaths we had during our first wave across Ontario care homes.”

And then there is the tool of rapid testing

It’s only available in some long-term care facilities so far, like Maxville Manor in Ottawa, which can run a test in 15 minutes

The not for profit home says it’s been testing staff weekly, and essential visitors and family every time they come in

The rapid test has been almost completely accurate

So far this winter, the home has avoided a deadly outbreak like those hitting so many other care homes

Amy Porteous, CEO of Maxville Manor, says the rapid testing is “phenomenal.”

“I think that long-term care homes and retirement facilities across the nation should really be thinking hard about implementing rapid tests.”

One example that drives home how important the rapid testing has been came just this week, Porteous said

A staff member came into work and tested positive via rapid testing

She had a PCR test done, and two days later, the results confirmed those of the rapid test

“Now if we didn't have the rapid test, she would have been in the home for those two days, and helping to spread the [virus],” Porteous said

“I definitely think that if we had the ability to roll [out] that rapid testing earlier, we probably would have seen a reduction in the amount of outbreaks that we have.”

In the face of the new variants, which are more transmissible than the original virus, the need to keep COVID-19 out of long-term care is higher than ever

Lee said that the discovery that a variant had played a role in the outbreak at Roberta Place was sobering, and underline how dangerous they can be

Testing is currently underway in other seniors’ homes to find out if any of the new variants are behind any other massive outbreaks in long-term care. 

Roberta Place has been stricken with a massive outbreak of COVID-19, which contains several confirmed cases of one of the new variants of the virus

Active COVID-19 cases reach all-time high in Indigenous communities

New variant behind massive COVID-19 outbreak at Ontario LTC home

Ontario reports more than 2,600 new COVID-19 cases, cites technical issue in Toronto

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