{"id":13774,"date":"2020-05-04T18:52:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T22:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/?p=13774"},"modified":"2020-05-18T12:55:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:55:33","slug":"hagersvilles-anson-place-turning-the-corner-in-race-to-control-outbreak-health-unit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/hagersvilles-anson-place-turning-the-corner-in-race-to-control-outbreak-health-unit-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Hagersville’s Anson Place ‘turning the corner’ in race to control outbreak, health unit says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By <\/span>J.P. Antonacci<\/span>Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mon., May 4, 2020<\/span><\/span><\/span>timer<\/i>4 min. read<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The worst of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Anson Place Care Centre could be over, but families and staff are worried about the emotional trauma left behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in some ways they are turning the corner,\u201d Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Haldimand-Norfolk\u2019s chief medical officer of health, said on Monday. But he warned it would be quite some time before the outbreak was declared over.<\/p>\n

It has been 10 days since a resident of the Hagersville long-term care facility tested positive for COVID-19, and the most recent deaths the health unit can definitively link to the disease were reported on April 22, when the death toll rose from 25 to 27.<\/p>\n

In total, 72 residents at the 101-bed facility contracted the disease, with 45 still in recovery.<\/p>\n

Four more residents died in recent days, including one announced Monday evening, but the health unit says COVID-19 was not the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a judgment call, and we rely on the doctor who treated the patient to make their best determination,\u201d Nesathurai said. \u201cThe recent deaths, even if they had a positive lab test, we would arbitrate them as not related to COVID-19.\u201d <\/p>\n

Anson Place executive director Lisa Roth said they \u201cremain vigilant\u201d to prevent further spread. She said there have been no changes to the procedures put in place to stem the spread of the virus. These include having staff wear full personal protective equipment with interacting with residents, isolating residents in their rooms where possible, and frequently screening staff and residents for symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain cautiously optimistic that our active case numbers will decrease as we continue to retest all residents in our care centre and await the second round of test results from our retirement residence,\u201d Roth said. <\/p>\n

The health unit could not confirm the total number of Anson Place residents who have died since late March. Roth did not respond to a request for that information.<\/p>\n

Mike McCarroll worries about the mental health of residents who have seen dozens of their neighbours die in less than a month. His mother, Ruby, called Anson Place home until her death from COVID-19 on March 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel bad for the residents. They\u2019re like a family,\u201d McCarroll said. \u201cTo have one death, that affects them all. Now to have 27 of their own pass away in three, four weeks, that\u2019s got to be emotionally hard for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deaths also take a toll on staff, says Rebecca Piironen, a personal support worker at Anson Place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our own connections with these people,\u201d said Piironen, who has been off work since March 22 with a non-COVID respiratory illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this one man who\u2019s positive. He\u2019s seen all three of his roommates pass away from this virus. I can\u2019t imagine what\u2019s going through his mind. I can\u2019t imagine the pain that they\u2019re going through mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staffing has been a major challenge at Anson Place, as upwards of 30 employees have been forced off work and into quarantine after contracting COVID-19.<\/p>\n

After initially appearing to turn down provincial help, Roth approached the health ministry to get an eight-person \u201cSWAT team\u201d of hospital workers for the long-term care floor. A call to the community through local churches brought in more volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom everything I know, they\u2019re sufficiently staffed,\u201d Nesathurai said. \u201cThe people there are working very hard to provide care to patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The health unit has lifted a requirement that had employees only travelling to and from work to limit potential transmission of the virus.<\/p>\n

Some infected employees are living in isolation at a local motel at the company\u2019s expense. All new hires are tested for the virus before starting their jobs.<\/p>\n

Nesathurai added that some COVID-positive staff have since had two negative tests, which is the prerequisite for returning to work. But Piironen said just because some employees are healthy enough to go back doesn\u2019t mean they feel safe doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, some of the girls are getting their two negatives and want to go back in and help (the residents), but we don\u2019t trust what\u2019s going on in there,\u201d said Piironen, who said she is in regular contact with her colleagues.<\/p>\n

Their worries are underscored by recent court rulings against Anson Place\u2019s parent company, Responsive Group Inc. The Ontario Nurses\u2019 Association and SEIU Healthcare allege that management has not followed proper infection control protocols or provided staff with adequate protective equipment.<\/p>\n

Responsive Group denies the allegations, and the Ontario Labour Relations Board ordered weekly inspections.<\/p>\n

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Nesathurai credited management and staff\u2019s hard work to get one of the province\u2019s worst outbreaks under control. But he warned that there could still be more deaths among residents who contracted the disease weeks ago and are now showing symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re doing everything that they can, but we also recognize that these are frail, elderly people who were infected,\u201d Nesathurai said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that they\u2019ve turned the corner, but I think we have to wait and see. It\u2019ll be some time before we call the outbreak over.\u201d<\/p>\n

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J.P. Antonacci\u2019s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows him to report on stories about the regions of Haldimand and Norfolk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By J.P. AntonacciLocal Journalism Initiative ReporterMon., May 4, 2020timer4 min. readThe worst of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Anson Place Care Centre could be over, but families and staff are worried about the emotional trauma left behind.\u201cI think in some ways they are turning the corner,\u201d Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Haldimand-Norfolk\u2019s chief medical officer of health,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[120,162,161,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15684,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13774\/revisions\/15684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airpurifierspecialist.com\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}