LITTLE CURRENT—After weathering the pandemic with relatively flying colours, Manitoulin Centennial Manor has been wrestling with a COVID-19 outbreak that has impacted half the residents and a good portion of the staff.
“We have a COVID-19 outbreak that started on November 30 with 18 residents on the upper floor and 12 residents on the lower floor for a total of 30 residents testing positive,” Manor administrator Don Cook told the Manor board at its December 21 meeting. “There were 13 staff testing positive at the same time.”
Mr. Cook informed the board that “we know it was brought in from the community, but we did have it spread from resident to resident.”
The administrator pointed out that it was difficult to tell if staff had contracted the virus from work or in the community. But added that, “at the same time some staff did become positive while off work.”
“Thankfully, things are getting better,” said Mr. Cook. “We have one resident who has to wait a while to be tested but it seems to be tapering off.”
One of the challenges under the current regime, explained Mr. Cook, is that since nearly all the residents have been inoculated, they do not express much in the way of symptoms.
“By the time we pick up on it, they have been walking around for quite a while infecting other residents,” he noted. But on the other side of the coin, the virus is not having the same harsh symptoms.
Manor staff continue to monitor new residents as they come in to ensure they are up-to-date on vaccines. Mr. Cook noted that COVID-19 boosters have been given to all residents that are ready for their next shot and have consented to receive them.
In other Manor news, Mr. Cook noted that the long-term care home currently has one open bed, with a wait list of 18 people, 10 of which will be reviewed.
