Maple View Lodge has become the second Brockville and area facility to declare a COVID-19 outbreak, as the number of cases resumed its slow increase after pausing earlier this week.

Officials at the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit announced late Tuesday afternoon they are working with the Athens long-term care facility to manage an outbreak after one staff member and one resident tested positive for the virus.

“Infection control measures under the Long Term Care Homes Act have been put in place to manage the outbreak and are being monitored by the health unit,” officials added.

“The resident has been isolated in their room and all infection management protocols are in place to prevent the spread of this, or any other infection to others. The staff member is at home self-isolating and following the direction of public health and ministry requirements.”

Paramedics have tested all the residents in the home and over half the staff members over the past weekend, the health unit statement continued.

“This testing found the positive resident and staff person. The remaining staff will also be tested.”

“We are working in close partnership with our local public health unit and medical director to ensure every possible step is taken to protect our residents and staff,” Maple View administrator Tracy Jordan said in a prepared statement.

“We have been, and continue to, follow all public health and provincial directives to protect our residents and staff. The health and safety of our residents and staff is our highest priority.”

The latest development follows last week’s news that a staff member at the Royal Brock Retirement Residence has tested positive for COVID-19. The Stewart Boulevard site became the first seniors’ facility to declare an outbreak in the Leeds and Grenville area, after all the previous outbreaks were in Lanark and Smiths Falls.

Medical officer of health Dr. Paula Stewart said the latest outbreak reinforces the need to maintain the precautions in place.

“The outbreaks in long-term care homes and retirement homes in LGL (Leeds, Grenville and Lanark) serve as a reminder that we all need to follow the recommended actions to decrease the risk of spread of COVID-19 in the community,” she said in a prepared statement. “This includes staying at home as much as possible, keeping a distance of two metres (six feet) away from other people. By working together we can protect the most vulnerable among us!”

Tuesday afternoon’s development followed an otherwise encouraging day, at least locally, on the pandemic front.

For the first time since the very early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the tri-county area, the health unit had reported no new cases of the coronavirus disease in the region over the span of a weekday.

In what health unit spokeswoman Susan Healey called a “notable first,” Tuesday’s total, based on data as of 4 p.m. on Monday, showed the same numbers as they did the previous day: 319 lab-confirmed cases of the disease, including 46 deaths, in the three counties.

Tellingly, while the local data continued to lag behind the provincial total for this region, that provincial count dropped by one: On Monday the province’s health ministry was reporting 324 cases locally, while on Tuesday that number had dropped to 323.

Since the health unit only updates its counts on weekdays, this was the first time the public could see a day without increases, but similar slowdowns have happened almost imperceptibly.

A deeper analysis of the numbers by health unit staff shows no new cases appeared in the health unit counts on May 2 and 3, as well as May 11.

Since the first two dates were over a weekend, the latest total is the first time the lack of an increase has showed up in the health unit’s regular online updates.

The new cases resumed the next day, however, perhaps to include the Maple View results, with the health unit reporting 324 cases, including the 46 deaths. The more recent numbers are based on data collected at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Of those cases, 70 are in the community, while 74 are health-care workers and the majority, or 180, are residents of long-term care or retirement residences.

The health unit has done a total of 3,996 tests to date, up from 3,887 in the previous day’s count, and eight per cent of those tests came back positive.

Health unit officials say 62 per cent of local COVID-19 patients have recovered.

The provincial number, meanwhile, went up to 328 as of the latest tally.

The tri-county health unit remains the second-most infected among Ontario’s 34 health authorities, with a rate of 189.4 cases per 100,000 in population, tied with Peel Public Health. The highest rate belonged to Toronto Public Health at 229.8 per 100,000 people.