A health and safety group representing 28,000 care workers across B.C. is calling on the provincial government to implement mass COVID-19 testing for all staff and residents at seniors homes across the province.
SafeCare BC claims a mass testing strategy that deploys rapid testing options will offer an extra layer of safety by screening staff and visitors at points-of-entry, according to a press release.
“Staff are currently living in fear that they could bring COVID into the care home or home to their families. This is a huge mental health burden that our healthcare workers shouldn’t have to bear,” said SafeCare BC CEO Jen Lyle in a written statement.
“As we are seeing increased community spread of COVID-19, a mass testing strategy for those living and working in care homes makes sense. It’s a prevention tool, because the sooner we can identify cases, the better we can reduce the risk of transmission.”
The call comes a day after B.C.’s seniors advocate Isobel MacKenzie released survey data that found seniors fear dying of loneliness more than COVID-19.
In response, Fraser Health CEO and president Dr. Victoria Lee said the tighter restrictions “have saved lives” and did not offer any hope of increased visitations.
With care homes largely sealed off from the outside, infected staff members have remained the leading vector sparking outbreaks at seniors homes.
“All these precautions — we’re doing all this so it doesn’t get in there and everyone stays safe. Well OK, that has failed and it is there,” said Elizabeth Charyna, whose 93-year-old mother lives at Hawthorne Seniors Care Community, a Port Coquitlam facility where 18 people had tested positive for the virus by Tuesday, Nov. 3.
There are currently 27 outbreaks in seniors and long-term care homes across B.C., including Hawthorne in Port Coquitlam, Mayfair Terrace Retirement Residence less than 300 metres away, and Belvedere Care Centre in Coquitlam.
The three Tri-City seniors homes under outbreak protocols represent the first incursions of COVID-19 into the long-term care sector since June 26, when Nicola Lodge declared an end to its outbreak.
Earlier in the pandemic, Dufferin Care Centre in Coquitlam suffered nearly two dozen cases, including four deaths, and Shaughnessy Care Centre in Port Coquitlam declared its outbreak over in April, but not before the novel coronavirus took one resident’s life and infected three others.
To date, roughly 52% of deaths in B.C. and 77% of deaths across Canada due to COVID-19 have been linked to the long-term care sector.
“We know that cases weren’t identified as early as they could have had mass testing been done. And this can have tragic consequences for our seniors and for those who care for them,” said Lyle.
-With files from Diane Strandberg
