There has been a significant spike in positive COVID-19 cases among residents at Roberta Place long-term care home in south-end Barrie, as well as another death, bringing the Essa Road facility’s death toll to 10 during the outbreak.
According to Roberta Place officials, there are currently 92 residents who have tested positive for the virus in the facility, an increase of 29 in the past 24 hours from the 63 cases that had been reported Monday. There are also 57 positive cases among staff, which is up from 53 on Monday.
The long-term care home has 137 beds and 122 staff.
On a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner said he understands there has been an "intense amount of interest" in this "severe" outbreak, which was declared Jan. 8. There are also a lot of questions about what is happening at the facility to stop the spread.
Twenty-two positive results from rapid testing undertaken at Roberta Place are also pending.
On Tuesday, the health unit was only reporting eight deaths among residents, as well as 65 resident and 56 staff cases, but there have been lags in case reporting around the region due to the volume. However, health unit officials have said case reporting coming out directly from the long-term care home are reliable.
On Monday, the local health unit issued an order under the Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) for Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital to take on a temporary leadership role at Roberta Place to help bring a current outbreak under control.
“There was on-site testing (Monday) from the team from Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital using their rapid test that they have at their assessment centre and at the hospital,” Gardner said. “That showed an additional 22 positive resident cases. The 22 would be on top of the 65 that we know of and would have to be confirmed by the province as well.”
Gardner also said four Roberta Place residents have been admitted to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH).
Red Cross and RVH workers have also been in the Roberta Place facility assisting, while Simcoe County has been providing expertise with regards to infection control.
“We have also had an offer of assistance from health-care students at Georgian College preparing to come online to provide assistance,” Gardner said. “Also, we’ve had Hospice Simcoe provide personnel as well to help with the residents.”
Simcoe County Paramedics Services have also been helping out with immunization efforts at the home.
Despite the vaccination being administered at Roberta Place, Gardner said they can’t immunize those who are active cases, those with symptoms or those who have tested positive "because the vaccine wouldn’t be able to help in that situation."
“Because of the size of this outbreak, and the number of people impacted, we are limited in how much immunization we can provide to the residents,” the doctor said. “We were able to immunize 21 of 140 of residents, which is 15 per cent. Forty-six per cent of their staff and essential caregivers have received immunization."
There has also been no confirmation whether the UK variant of the virus, or any other strains, has been present at Roberta Place.
“It is actually being processed at the National Microbiology Laboratory and is a process that takes some time, more than a week,” Gardner said. “It may be another week before we get the result as we initiated this mid-week last week.”
