Another four residents have died at Cedarcroft Place Retirement Residence in Stratford.
Huron Perth Public Health updated the media on Monday afternoon and said the death toll from the COVID-19 outbreak at the home is now at eight.
There are currently 47 active cases at the home, 34 in residents, and 13 in staff. Huron Perth Medical Officer of Health Dr. Miriam Klassen says there are several reasons the virus has spread so quickly including the fact that by the time the first case was identified there had already been a certain amount of transmission given that the virus has a 14 day incubation period. She added that combined with a very vulnerable population with “less staff capacity even from the start” and the virus can transmit pre-symptomatically or asymptomatically quite easily among a vulnerable population. Klassen added, “The entire time they were struggling to have enough staff and its possible staff was tired and made errors. I think it was probably a combination of many things that has [sic] led to that kind of transmission.”
Dr.Klassen says the shortage of staff also lead to issues in other areas of the home including residents not receiving meals on time, “The staff that were [sic] there were working very hard to ensure that residents were cared for. We have heard from Cedarcroft that the timeliness of some meal deliveries was delayed because of staffing shortages.”
MyStratfordNow.com reached out to the Retirement Home Regulatory Authority (RHRA) on Monday afternoon after Dr. Klassen was asked if they would consider asking the province to take over the management of the home. Klassen said that would be up to the RHRA. In an email response to MyStratfordNow.com the RHRA provided this, “RHRA has been fully engaged with community partners including Huron-Perth Public Health, which is leading the response, as well as the South West Local Health Integration Network and the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance to assess the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak at Cedarcroft Place in Stratford. We are supporting the community response as the situation evolves and remain in regular contact with the licensee. RHRA continues to closely monitor the situation to ensure residents are receiving the care they need.”
On Sunday, Andrew Williams the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance said HPHA has been assisting with staffing shortages at Cedarcroft, “HPHA has been focusing our energy on stabilizing the staffing complement at Cedarcroft; we have redeployed staff from the LHIN, the hospital, and starting this week from London Health Sciences Centre. We are also starting to see some Cedarcroft staff return to work.”
Ten residents were moved from Cedarcroft to area hospitals on Saturday with more moved on Sunday although Dr. Klassen could not confirm how many have been moved to hospitals during Monday’s media briefing. On Sunday, Williams said the decision to temporarily move the residents to area hospitals was made with their best interests at heart, “It is based purely on the medical assessment of needs of the individuals and the staffing complement to support.”
Meanwhile, in Huron Perth, there are 72 active cases of COVID-19. Klassen says some of the active cases are epidemiologically linked to the Cedarcroft outbreak and others are across Huron-Perth in various municipalities including 17 active cases in Perth East. There have now been 13 deaths in Huron Perth attributed to COVID-19.
