Despite Ontario loosening public health measures and restrictions across the province, some local long-term care homes aren’t following suit due to the area’s high COVID-19 case counts.
Chief Executive Officer and District Administrator for Kenora District Homes, Kevin Queen, confirms that in the interest of protecting their residents, they have decided against relaxing restrictions at Pinecrest in Kenora, until the area’s COVID-19 positivity rate is closer to the provincial average.
Red Lake’s Northwood Lodge is also seeing restrictions maintained. While measures did loosen in Dryden’s Princess Court, staff have been advised to watch conditions closely and are ready to reinstate restrictions if required.
The Northwestern Health Unit says the catchment area’s COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 is the highest in Ontario and is five times higher than the provincial average. The area’s test positivity rate is also listed at 29.1 per cent, almost triple Ontario’s average positivity rate of 10.8 per cent.
Due to the risk in the region, Ontario’s new measures in long-term care homes, such as allowing vaccinated visitors over the age of 5 to visit, increasing the number of visitors from two to three and allowing day and overnight trips, will be implemented at a later date.
With the area’s high COVID-19 positivity rates, the NWHU has strongly recommended that all residents continue following more-strict restrictions that Ontario was previously under, prior to February 17’s reopening date.
Those recommendations include keeping social gathering limits under 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors and limiting capacity at 50 per cent in indoor public settings with enough room for social distancing, as well as continued masking, social distancing and self-isolation requirements.
As of February 23, the Northwestern Health Unit is reporting 1 active COVID-19 outbreak in a long-term care home in their area, but the home in question cannot be identified. Staff also report a total of 308 active cases across the catchment area, with a spike in cases in the Fort Frances and Sioux Lookout areas.