A spike in COVID-19 cases locally is putting added pressure on staff at long-term care homes.
One of the county operated facilities, Marshall Gowland Manor, has had 12 staff members and fewer than five residents test positive for the virus since January 1.
Long-Term Care Division General Manager Jane Joris said they're experiencing staffing issues at all three county run homes.
"We have a number of people who are off work either because they've tested positive or because they were a close contact," said Joris. "We have a full-time infection, prevention and control nurse who keeps in contact with those people and provides them with guidance on when they can return to work. At the moment, we've been able to manage, and actually the weekend was a little bit better than last week."
Joris said the current situation is very different from the start of the pandemic in 2020.
"We didn't have rapid tests at the beginning, we didn't have vaccinations, our PPE (personal protective equipment) supplies were not always stable," she said. "So, certainly those three things have made a huge difference, also we have good practice for infection prevention and control, and I hate to say it but I think people are more used to things like masking and physical distancing."
She said everyone entering one of the three county-run facilities, including staff and essential care-givers, are required to take a rapid-test, while general visitation has been paused.
"We are asking if essential care-givers are in the building and they can assist with care or assist with mealtime, we are happy to have them do that, and if they'd like some extra training on that so that they can help people other than just their family member, we're happy to provide that as well."
There are 15 active institutional outbreaks in the community, eight of which are at long-term care and retirement homes.
A long-term care or other communal living setting outbreak is declared facility-wide when there is one or more lab confirmed case(s) of COVID-19 in a staff member or resident, and possible exposure to others has occurred.
