IH declares outbreak at Village at Mill Creek care home and La Casa resort
By Nelson Daily Staff
After reporting 15 additional COVID-19 cases in the region for a total since the start of the pandemic to 803, in a prepared statement Wednesday, Interior Health (IH) declared an outbreak at the Village at Mill Creek long-term care home following a thorough public health investigation.
“Two staff members have tested positive for COVID-19,” the IH statement said.
“There are no cases among the residents at this time and we continue to monitor the situation, while implementing additional infection control and preventative measures. The two positive cases were exposed outside of the workplace.”
Interior Health said Wednesday that a total of 102 COVID-19 cases are active and on insolation. There is no one in hospital.
Interior Health said to protect the safety of all residents, outbreak protocols have been implemented including a temporary pause in visits.
“We are directly contacting anyone who may have been exposed to COVID-19 to ensure they are also taking appropriate precautions (self-isolation or monitoring) as required,” Interior Health said.
Interior Health also declared a new community outbreak at La Casa resort in West Kelowna. Interior Health said in total, seven people who attended a multi-household rental event between Oct. 23-26 have tested positive for COVID-19.
“Patients are self-isolating with support from Interior Health and we are directly contacting anyone who may have been exposed to COVID-19,” Interior Health said.
The Village at Mill Creek has 96 publicly funded long-term care beds. It is owned and operated by Baptist Housing Enhanced Living Communities.
Interior Health continues to take steps to protect the health of all staff, individuals in care and families at long-term care homes.
This includes:
- Full personal protective equipment (PPE) for any staff providing direct care to residents.
- Ensuring long-term care staff are only working at one care home (as per the provincial single site order).
- Monitoring all residents for respiratory symptoms and doing immediate COVID-19 testing on any individual displaying COVID-19 symptoms.
- Enhanced cleaning protocols and COVID-19 visitor policies. Note: Temporary restrictions on non-essential visits are implemented as per protocols for any outbreak in long-term care.
To date, no long-term care residents have tested positive for COVID-19 at any homes in IH.
Wednesday, BC’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry along with Minister of Health Adrian Dix in the daily media briefing reported 335 new cases, including seven epi-linked cases, for a total of 16,135 cases in British Columbia.
“There are 3,120 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, 7,133 people who are under active public health monitoring as a result of identified exposure to known cases, and 12,659 people who tested positive have recovered,” Dr. Henry said.
“Currently, 92 individuals are hospitalized with COVID-19, 25 of whom are in intensive care. The remaining people with COVID-19 are recovering at home in self-isolation.
“Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 5,097 cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Coastal Health region, 9,439 in the Fraser Health region, 274 in the Island Health region, 803 in the Interior Health region, 432 in the Northern Health region and 90 cases of people who reside outside of Canada.
Dr. Henry said there has been one new COVID-19 related death, for a total of 273 deaths in British Columbia.
“We offer our condolences to everyone who has lost their loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
“There have been three new health-care facility outbreaks at Hawthorne Seniors Care Community, White Rock Senior Village and Village at Mill Creek. The outbreak at Peace Portal Seniors Village has been declared over. In total, 29 long-term care or assisted-living facilities and two acute-care facilities have active outbreaks.
“There has been one new community outbreak at La Casa resort in West Kelowna. The outbreak at Tim Horton’s in Merritt has been declared over. There also continue to be exposure events around the province. Public alerts and notifications are posted on the BC Centre for Disease Control’s (BCCDC) website and on all health authorities’ websites.
IH UPDATE: Kelowna Secondary School
Additional dates for a school exposure at Kelowna secondary school is listed on the School Exposure page. This exposure is unrelated to the earlier exposures.
IH COVID Testing Centre PSAs
Information on COVID-19 testing locations in Vernon and Kelowna went out today.
