'A horrible situation for everyone': Vaughan long-term care home 1 of several Ontario facilities battling surge of COVID-19

More than 25% of all residents at Woodbridge home test positive for coronavirus

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 28, 2020
Kim Zarzour

The second wave of COVID-19 is hitting one Vaughan long-term care home particularly hard.

Chartwell Pine Grove, in Woodbridge, is experiencing the largest outbreak in York Region, with more than 25 per cent of all residents and nearly 10 per cent of all staff testing positive for the coronavirus.

The Islington Avenue facility, which provides 24-hour nursing and independent supportive living geared to Italian-Canadians, came through the first wave unscathed, but this time around, the virus has been pervasive.

Anna Scida’s Nonna is one of those who tested positive for COVID-19.

A resident in the home for two years, she celebrated her 95th birthday there in June, but now her family is worried, Scida says.

“Everyone is very concerned and stressed out about the situation, trying to stay positive and saying lots of prayers,” she said.

“It's a horrible situation for everyone and we obviously hoped that this wouldn't happen since they hadn't had a case in the home yet. It's just a horrible situation and we feel bad for everyone involved.”

The region first reported the outbreak at Pine Grove Oct. 18. Within nine days, cases had skyrocketed to 30 of 109 residents and nine of 109 staff.

Chartwell spokesperson Sharon Ranalli said a staff member first tested positive Oct. 18 and a resident showed symptoms that same day.

As a result, all residents were placed in isolation and precautionary measures, she said, and York Region Public health directed that all residents and staff be tested on Oct. 21.

“We recognize the severity of this outbreak and are working closely with Ontario Health, Public Health and William Osler, who are providing clinical support and guidance,” she said.

“We have in place heightened infection prevention and control measures, signage, active screening and personal protective equipment. We also have nurse practitioners and physicians on-site assessing our residents.”

Pat Casey, spokesperson for the Region of York, said public health is working with the facility and continues to monitor the situation closely.

“Our infection prevention and control team has visited the facility three times since the outbreak was declared,” he said, adding the team advised on a number of measures including increased cleaning and disinfecting, screening residents twice daily for symptoms, isolating ill residents to their rooms and providing meal service via tray service to resident rooms, keeping ill residents separate from those who are well and excluding ill staff from the workplace.

All group activities are cancelled and additional infection and prevention and control precautions by staff (use of personal protective equipment and droplet/contact precautions) have been implemented, he said.

Pine Grove has private and semi-private rooms. There are no rooms with four beds per room, he said.

Vaughan Regional Councillor Linda Jackson posted photos on social media in June of her with Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association delivering face masks to the front-line workers at the home.

Her family has a special connection with Pine Grove, she said.

"My beloved grandfather lived out the remaining years of his life there. The staff always welcomed us with open arms. They became an extension of our family.

"I want to remind the entire Pine Grove community that the City of Vaughan and York Region are taking every possible action to combat COVID-19 and to care for our most vulnerable residents during these times of global uncertainty.”

Pine Grove is one of several long-term care homes in the province that have exploded with cases over the past week.

Others include Kennedy Lodge, Lakeside, Fudger House and Main Street Terrace in Toronto, Simcoe Manor in Beeton, Prescott-Russell Residence in Hawkesbury and Starwood in Ottawa.

Vivian Stamatopoulos, associate teaching professor at Ontario Tech University, said the outbreaks were to be expected as cases spread in the community.

“What is preventable,” she added, “is the level of devastation we are seeing in the homes once the virus enters and much of this can be explained by chronic understaffing, delays in testing and the turnaround of results.

The record level of community transmission currently seen in Ontario, which triggered these new long-term care outbreaks, could have been mitigated with better public health messaging and earlier action to scale back to a modified Stage 2 in key jurisdictions, Stamatopoulos said.

“We know that this is an exceptionally difficult time for everyone and the deep concern this creates for family members,” Chartwell’s Ranalli said.

“With the support of our health care partners, increased staffing levels, heightened infection prevention and control practices, and the cohorting of our residents, we are doing everything possible to minimize the further transmission of the virus.”

Through it all, Anna Scida holds out hope.

While her grandmother tested positive six days ago, she still has not shown any symptoms and Scida remains optimistic.

“She is one tough cookie.”