NEPEAN – While numbers show we may be just beginning the downside of the COVID-19 pandemic curve, new cases are still showing up at the hard-hit Peter D. Clark Centre.

Yesterday (May 18) another staff member was confirmed to have contacted COVID-19.

The additional case, identified in a memo to council yesterday, brings the number of infections related to the long-term care facility to 19 residents and 11 staff.

In the same memo written by the city’s Community and Social Services Department general manager Donna Gray, public health officials have identified one staff member at the Centre d’accueil Champlain and three at the Garry J. Armstrong Centre as confirmed cases over the weekend. There are no cases among residents at the city’s three other long-term care centres.

“The safety of residents and staff continue to be our top priority,” Gray wrote in the memo. “The homes are following operational protocols in accordance with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care.”

“In order to prevent further spread of COVID-19 within the home, additional preventative measures have already been implemented,” Gray said.

They include:

• Ensuring all staff working in the home are wearing masks and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Testing contacts of the confirmed individual, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic
• Providing additional training and support for all staff specific to outbreaks
• Disinfecting all work areas to ensure the health and safety of our staff and residents and implementing additional environment services supports to disinfect the entire home area
• Assigning consistent staff to each unit wherever possible and limiting staff movement around the home during their shift
• Encouraging residents to remain on their unit and limiting residents to their rooms to the extent possible

“We will continue to follow the advice of Ottawa Public Health and directives from the Ministry of Health and we will provide additional information as it becomes available,” Gray said.