Potential Respiratory Outbreak At The Pines Long-Term Care

Yesterday (Tuesday) four residents of the Pines Long-Term Care Home developed mild respiratory symptoms. Immediate steps were taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure care for those four residents remains at the highest quality, and to help protect the health and safety of other residents and staff. Families of the symptomatic residents were notified and those residents have been moved to an isolated area of the home for monitoring while the potential respiratory outbreak is investigated.

“We are sharing this development because we know our community is concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and how it may impact residents and staff at the Pines Long-Term Care Home,“ said District Chair John Klinck. “Ensuring our residents and staff are safe and in a healthy environment is our first priority.”

“Staff have been in contact with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit to ensure we have taken all the appropriate precautions. Diagnostic swabs were taken on all four residents and according to Public Health, the results will be available in the next 24 hours,” said Norm Barette, Commissioner of Health Services.

As a result of the current activity in the Home, the Health Unit has placed one home area at the Pines on respiratory outbreak status pending laboratory results. Staff continue to take deliberate steps to ensure the health and wellbeing of our residents and staff including:

1. Restricting all visitors, volunteers and non-essential health care personnelfrom visiting the facility, except for compassionate reasons such as end-of-life situations.
2. Actively screening all residents twice daily
3. Actively screening all health care personnel for respiratory symptoms including actively checking temperatures for a fever at the beginning of each shift. Anyone with these symptoms will not be permitted to enter the facility at any time.

Daily updates will be provided to residents, their families, staff and the community until further notice.  Additional information about District of Muskoka program and service impacts are available at https://www.muskoka.on.ca/en/Coronavirus.aspx.