Dale Boyd

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

One additional staff member has tested positive for COVID-19 at the McKinney Place long-term care home in Oliver, bringing the total number of cases related to the outbreak to 41.

The number of residents who have contracted the virus remains at 27 as of Friday.

Interior Health held a virtual press conference Friday led by Dr. Albert De Villiers, chief medical health officer for Interior Health.

Additional staff have been deployed to the facility and Interior Health is putting a call out for even more staff to assist at the facility from around the Okanagan, De Villiers said.

“We have ensured additional staffing resources are in place to support McKinney’s core staff and we’ve put a call out for more staff to work at McKinney as well,” De Villiers said. “If not enough people step forward we’ll deploy staff to the site to ensure the required staff levels are actually maintained, and that’s 24/7, so we want to make sure people get the care they are entitled to.”

“Our staff are true health care heroes in supporting their colleagues and caring for these vulnerable residents who rely on us every day and we are not going to let them down, not the staff or the residents.”

None of the residents or staff who have tested positive have been admitted to the hospital, and some are asymptomatic, but according to De Villiers none have serious enough symptoms to be admitted to hospital as of yet.

More COVID testing is occurring at the facility and there is regular testing of asymptomatic staff and residents. Residents are monitored twice daily for signs and symptoms of COVID, and are tested immediately if they show symptoms or change in their condition. Housekeeping and cleaning shifts are taking place 24/7, De Villiers said, with all proper personal protective equipment and precautions in place.

Interior Health has been unable to confirm how the virus made its way into the facility as of yet.

“The first that we found out about the symptoms, the people that actually showed symptoms, some of the residents, there was quite a few at once. So we haven’t been able to trace back exactly where they got it,” De Villiers said. “But having said that we’re currently trying to focus on the outbreak and trying to manage it. Eventually, over time, we will put some more resources in there and try and find that out but we’re just trying at this point to manage it as best we can.”

“Logic says it’s either a visitor or through a staff member because the residents are staying put.”

McKinney Place is an older facility which does have more congregation areas and has fewer private rooms than some newer long-term care facilities, which may have contributed to the spread, De Villiers said.

“That might have contributed because you can imagine if you’re in your room alone it’s easier to keep the spread out than if there’s more people in the same room, so that might have contributed,” De Villiers said.

“We’re not quite sure why it spread so quickly in this specific situation but everybody is really trying to do their best and the staff is trying to do their best to not help the spread because they obviously care about the residents.”

De Villiers thanked the residents of Oliver who have stepped up to offer assistance to workers on isolation for being supportive during a trying time.

“We’re grateful to the people that are actually really being kind and supportive of the McKinney staff. People can be sure that if they see a staff member at McKinney in the community that individual has tested negative for COVID-19 and they don’t have to self-isolate. The one’s that have tested positive are not going to be out in the community so people shouldn’t be scared of them or shouldn’t try to avoid them because they are safe.

“We need the community to be there for McKinney staff more than ever and we’re hearing reports of the community stepping in and stepping up to the plate which is great. So thank you to the people of Oliver and you’ve been a really positive light in this really challenging time,” De Villiers said.

With COVID-19 disproportionately affecting seniors and long-term care facilities, De Villiers was unsure how the outbreak will progress, but so far there have been no cases serious enough to require hospitalization.

“At this stage it’s a difficult to predict. We know this is a little bit of an unpredictable virus, different people react to it differently. The good thing at this point is we do not have any hospitalizations or any deaths related to COVID in this facility specifically. So we are hoping that the measures we are putting in place now will be able to contain this and not spread to anybody else,” De Villiers said.