Another resident death is being reported today at Roberta Place as the local health unit paints a grim picture around the changing needs of the Barrie long-term care home’s inhabitants amid the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
Roberta Place community relations co-ordinator Stephanie Barber tells BarrieToday that Tuesday’s positive case count among residents has remained unchanged at 127 (which is all but two residents), while cases among staff/team members rose to 92, which is up from 86 on Monday.
There are now 46 residents who have died at Roberta Place during the outbreak, which was declared Jan. 8 by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. An essential caregiver associated with the Essa Road facility has also died, bringing the overall death toll to 47 people linked to Roberta Place.
On a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon, local medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner spoke to the staffing situation at Roberta Place. Gardner said there's a better level of staffing than there had been going back to last week, but the facility was not out of the woods yet, he noted.
“There is great concern that the acuity of the residents there has shifted dramatically,” the doctor said. “It is really no longer like a long-term care facility and it is more like an acute care and palliative care facility, in terms of the needs of the residents that are present.”
Acute care refers to the treatment someone needs for a severe medical condition or disease, while palliative care refers to the treatment of a serious illness and pain relief, regardless of the stage of the illness.
Gardner said the health unit was in talks with the province about additional measures that can be brought into Roberta Place to support the operation of the facility.
On Sunday, Gardner said he's "fully convinced" all of the Roberta Place deaths and confirmed cases linked to the facility are from the UK variant of COVID-19 known as B.1.1.7.
