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London-area public health officials are ratcheting up COVID-19 response in local long-term care and retirement homes, targeting at least six for enhanced support as the front line of the pandemic fight shifts to the sector.

Amid a major provincial push to contain coronavirus in Ontario’s retirement homes and more than 600 long-term care facilities, the Middlesex-London Health Unit is testing residents and targeting support to several experiencing outbreaks.

“We’ve now completed all testing in the highest risk facilities in London and Middlesex and we’ll be pushing to scale that up in the next two weeks,” chief medical officer of health Chris Mackie said Friday.

Twelve of the 26 deaths from COVID-19 in London and Middlesex County are linked to long-term care or retirement homes. About a quarter of the London-area’s 357 cases involve staff or residents in long-term care or retirement homes.

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Of the 763 COVID-19 deaths reported in Ontario, 573 are long-term care residents. Nearly 260 of the 640 new COVID-19 cases reported Friday are in long-term care.

The health unit has completed risk assessments for about 35 of the 50 long-term care and retirement homes in the London-area so far, associate medical officer of health Alex Summers said.

The questionnaires, administered by health unit officials, identify shortcomings that could put residents at risk.

Summers would not name the running list of homes earmarked for additional assistance in the COVID-19 fight but said they are experiencing outbreaks.

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As of Thursday, the health unit reported eight facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks including Henley Place, a flashpoint between the nurses union and the facility’s management over the availability of personal protective equipment including masks.

The facilities reporting outbreaks include a hospice, retirement homes and long-term care homes. Three previous long-term care or retirement home outbreaks were listed as resolved.

Homes deemed higher risk by the health unit get additional education on infection control and prevention by public health officials and are connected with Ontario Health West – the province’s regional health care administration – to secure extra personal protective equipment or staffing, Summers said.

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“There are certain gaps that are definitely being addressed,” Summers said. “As the risk assessments go on we’re certainly anticipating that we’ll have to potentially identify a few more homes needing support.”

One home in the London-area is getting additional personal support workers from an existing service provider, Ontario Health West said in a statement Friday.

The regional administration has additional clinical and non-clincial staff ready to be redeployed to long-term care if the need arises.

The province is directing the public health system to test all long-term care staff and residents for COVID-19. Since lab processing capabilities in the region are finite, the London-area health unit is coordinating with others in Southwestern Ontario to roll out testing in each home, Summers said.

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“We’ll be focusing on the homes that are highest priority to start,” Summers said.

The broad-based testing comes as the province escalates its response to COVID-19 in the vulnerable sector. The Ontario government has barred staff from working at multiple facilities, prevented funeral directors from entering the homes to remove bodies and called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help in five hard-hit homes in the Greater Toronto Area.

After a coordinated push to prepare hospitals for the pandemic, Mackie thinks the question about what was done, and when, to protect the more than 70,000 residents in Ontario’s long-term care facilities will be dissected for many years to come.

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“One of the limitations we had was around the issue of personal protective equipment,” he said.

“We know that putting masks on staff working in those settings can help reduce the spread of coronavirus. . . . But at the time that this was beginning to move into long-term care facilities, we had a real difficulty acquiring personal protective equipment.”

jbieman@postmedia.com

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