Sarah Rennie
The COVID-19 outbreak gripping the Centre d’Hébergement d’Ormstown (CHO) has infected at least 26 residents and six healthcare workers since a resident on the second floor was diagnosed on Jan. 2.
“We started planning for an outbreak right away,” says Dr. Catherine Bélanger, the COVID-19 coordinator for the Haut-Saint-Laurent local health network. The entire second floor was tested the following day and several more positive cases were diagnosed. “By Wednesday (Jan. 6), the full lockdown was in place,” she reports, including all infection prevention and control measures and the regular screening of all residents and employees.
“It was like a military operation,” says Bélanger of the coordinated reaction to the outbreak. “You can’t pre-prepare everything, so you have to do a lot of things on the fly,” she explains, as the situation can evolve suddenly. “The people who work there took it all in stride. They are always thinking about the people they are caring for,” she says.
Unfortunately, the preventive measures and the speed at which they were put in place was not enough to contain the outbreak, which has quickly spread to affect all care wings. A medical team including two doctors and dedicated staff are on site to care for patients who have been isolated in a hot zone now encompassing the entire second floor. According to Bélanger, the emphasis originally placed on containment has been replaced by a drive to protect non-infected residents and the provision of care for those who have tested positive.
“We are taking this outbreak very seriously,” confirms Jade St-Jean, the senior adviser, external communications, media and ministerial relations for the Montérégie-West Integrated Health and Social Services Centre (CISSSMO). She says the CISSSMO has been in regular communication with residents’ families with updates on the situation.
All of the residents at the CHO with negative results as of Jan. 7 were vaccinated on site by a mobile vaccination team, however some have since tested positive. The residents at the Centre d’hébergement du comté de Huntingdon (Huntingdon County Hospital) have also been vaccinated with the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.