Ontario wants long-term care homes to step up screening after B.C. man dies of COVID-19

The Ontario government is urging long-term care homes in the province to step up screening of staff, visitors and volunteers after an elderly man died of COVID-19 in B.C.

Health Minister Christine Elliott told reporters on Monday that the government has what it calls a "command table" on the coronavirus that is discussing the issue of how best to protect vulnerable people. 

The B.C. man, in his 80s, was a resident of Lynn Valley Care Home in North Vancouver. He had underlying health problems, B.C. health officials said. The death in B.C. is believed to be Canada's first COVID-19 fatality.

Elliott said the government is aware that COVID-19 presents more of a risk to certain sectors of the population. 

"We are very concerned about residents of long term care homes," Elliott said. 

"We are looking at sending more recommendations to long-term care homes, particularly for advanced screenings of staff, visitors, volunteers, to make sure that nobody is going to be bringing the virus into our long-term care homes," Elliott added.

"We know these are very, very vulnerable and often very ill people and we want to keep them safe."

According to one company that runs long-term care homes in downtown Toronto, detailed screening of visitors and frequent cleaning of common areas have already become extremely important.

Sue Graham-Nutter, CEO of Rekai Centres, said the company has a pandemic planning program. The Rekai Centres have two-and-a-half months of supplies in case of a pandemic, she said. The supplies include gowns and masks. She added the centres are also in regular communication with Toronto hospitals.

"We, of course, want to be ready to deal with the situation," Graham-Nutter said. 

She said all residents are currently fine and family members of residents are co-operating with the new regime.

The Rekai long-term care homes insist that every visitor use hand sanitizer when arriving or leaving and fill out a form that asks about any flu symptoms and travel outside of the country in the last 14 days. Visitors are asked to declare symptoms and travel history.

As well, family members have been told not to visit if they are not feeling well and staff have been told not to work if they are sick.

"We have to be fairly strong right now," Graham-Nutter said. "Normally, we try to be a bit more accommodating. But this isn't the environment to be accommodating. This is the environment to make sure there is maximum safety for our residents, our families and our staff."

Staff are also cleaning hand rails and elevator buttons every two hours, she said.

"We have more staff on than we would normally just to make sure the building is absolutely clean," she said. "We have more staff available should we need them."

Staff are urged to see their doctors if they have any flu symptoms, she said.