Four more residents of Anson Place Care Centre have died of COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths at the Hagersville long-term care facility to 19.

The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit reported that as of Tuesday morning, 73 residents at the 101-bed facility have tested positive, as well as 31 staff who are now in quarantine.

But Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Haldimand-Norfolk’s chief medical officer of health, said that thanks to protective measures put in place at the home, residents who aren’t sick are at low risk of contracting the disease.

“We didn’t have a new case today and we didn’t have a new case yesterday,” Nesathurai said Tuesday.

“So that’s a positive sign that there’s not a new group of individuals getting sick, which suggests that the interventions that were put in place two weeks ago might be having an effect.”

The death toll at Anson Place has been rising daily, but Nesathurai said that doesn’t mean the virus is currently spreading within the facility.

“The people who are currently sick at Anson Place were exposed two to two-and-a-half weeks ago,” he said.

“I think, regrettably, there’s likely to be more deaths. We are doing everything we can to try to prevent new people from getting ill, but I do also anticipate that the people who are currently ill, some will succumb to COVID-19.”

The health unit still isn’t sure how the virus first got into Anson Place.

“I don’t have that answer today, and I don’t think I’ll have an answer for many weeks. It’s a complicated type of assessment,” Nesathurai said. “But we are definitely investigating this.”

Nesathurai noted that many residents in long-term care have other health issues that compound the challenge for recovery. “The bottom line is, COVID-19 is a tough illness to have if you’re in your eighth or ninth decade of life, especially if you have other medical problems,” he said.

Executive director Lisa Roth says Anson Place has been working with the health unit, the provincial health ministry, and the regulatory bodies for retirement homes and long-term care facilities to manage the outbreak.

All residents and staff have now been tested, and every resident is confined to their rooms, including for meals. Residents are checked twice daily for COVID-19 symptoms by staff wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE).

“We have had and continue to have the appropriate PPE supplies needed,” Roth said.

Employees are also checked twice daily and change into their work clothes at the home.

“The people currently working at Anson Place are only working at Anson Place,” Nesathurai said. “They’re not doing any other activities, short of buying gasoline to fill up their cars.”

Roth said more nurses and cleaning staff have been brought in, and the facility has upped its cleaning and sanitizing efforts.

If a staff member who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 subsequently has two separate negative tests, the health unit says they are cleared to go back to work.

Although the outbreak at Anson Place accounts for the vast majority of Haldimand-Norfolk’s positive COVID-19 cases, Nesathurai said ventilators — which mechanically inflate weakened lungs and provide additional oxygen — have not been used to treat residents there. Instead, a doctor on site arranges for additional oxygen and medication for COVID-19 patients.

“Ventilators would not be provided in a place like Anson Place,” he said, explaining that the potentially life-saving devices are typically reserved for hospital patients.

The first resident of Anson Place to die of COVID-19 passed away at a Hagersville hospital March 26, but Nesathurai said subsequent residents have died at the care centre.

“Because that’s their preference,” he said. “Many elderly people who are at the end of their life choose not to have extraordinary treatment.”

He said should a patient want “more aggressive or assertive measures” they can be taken to hospital, but otherwise the health unit recommends they stay put and be cared for at the home. “Transferring somebody to spend their last hours in an emergency department, in my estimation, is not compassionate,” Nesathurai said. “It also provides for an opportunity to spread COVID-19 in the emergency department. That’s always the balancing act.”

Community members have fastened signs to the Anson Place fence with messages of encouragement for nurses and other staff. Roth said such gestures haven’t gone unnoticed.

“I can’t say it enough, but myself and the Anson Place team are deeply thankful for all the support and kind words we have received from families of residents and the community as a whole,” she said.

“Hearing from you has kept us strong as we work together to get through this difficult time.”