The community of Brockville strands in solidarity with the residents and staff at the Royal Brock Retirement residence, Mayor Jason Baker said Saturday morning.

On Friday, the Stewart Boulevard retirement home became the first seniors’ facility in Leeds and Grenville to have had a COVID-19 outbreak.

“It’s heartbreaking, for sure,” Baker said as he headed out on the second Community Strong Food Drive. “We’ve worked very hard to try and avoid it. Now that it’s happened, the first thing and the foremost thing is to make sure the Royal Brock knows they’re not alone in this and that the community’s going to support them, the city of Brockville’s going to get them anything and everything that they need to help contain it.”

While COVID-19 has been in the community for weeks now, outbreaks in long-term care and retirement facilities, the hardest-hit sector, have been confined to Lanark County until the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit on Friday reported one staff member at the Royal Brock has tested positive for the COVID-19 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 at the tri-county agency reported.

“The staff member is home under self-isolation and staff have been instructed to report any symptoms to public health immediately.”

Health unit spokeswoman Susan Healey said Friday one case is sufficient to declare an outbreak at a seniors’ facility.

She confirmed that, after health authorities had hoped seniors’ facilities in the Leeds and Grenville area had dodged the coronavirus bullet, this is the first time a facility in the southern counties has an outbreak.

She was unsure whether this new case is the one recorded in the health unit’s last COVID-19 update of the week on Friday, which showed 314 lab-confirmed cases, up one from the previous count. (The figure includes 43 deaths, unchanged from the previous count.)

An analysis of the numbers shows that one new case is a health-care worker, but Healey could not confirm it is the staffer at Royal Brock.

Since the provincial count is slightly ahead of the health unit total, recording 319 cases, it is possible the Royal Brock case will be captured in the next count next week, noted Healey.

Jenifer Willis, director of care at the Royal Brock Retirement Residence, said in a prepared statement the Stewart Boulevard facility is taking all the necessary precautions.

“The safety and security of our staff and residents is a primary concern for us as is minimizing the risk of transmission,” said Willis.

“We remain vigilant in our efforts to manage this outbreak and thank our staff, residents and family members for their compliance and support of our efforts. We continue to follow heightened COVID-19 infection control and screening protocols and all recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit.”

“The number of outbreaks in long-term care homes and retirement homes in the area serves as a reminder that we all need to follow the recommended actions to decrease the risk of spread of COVID-19 in the community,” medical officer of health Dr. Paula Stewart, added in a statement of her own.

Unlike other municipalities in the region, Brockville has not declared a municipal state of emergency during the pandemic crisis, and Baker on Saturday said he does not yet see the need to do so now.

“We’ll have a look at it but we’re really tracking the capacity of the hospital as a measurement as to whether we would state an emergency,” said the mayor.

“We’ll be in very close contact continuously with the hospital on this if this starts to spread.”