One resident at the Citadel Care Centre in St. Albert tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 25.
After learning of the positive case, Dana Schnepf, Citadel director of care and site manager, said the senior home took immediate measures. All family members were notified within the hour, she said.
“They've been receiving daily emails, and they will continue to get daily emails," Schnepf said. “Since March, I’ve promised our family members that with every outbreak, you’ll get daily emails. They deserve to know, these are their loved ones in our hands here.”
All visitations to the building were put on pause, the neighbourhood where the resident lived was sanitized and 17 residents living in that wing of the building were put in isolation as a precaution.
To ensure staff can take extra care of those in isolation, Schnepf said the facility is overstaffing to ensure they can keep up and follow protocols properly.
Everyone in the building is wearing masks at all times with a clear face shield over top, she said, and they have some staff members dedicated solely to making sure personal protective equipment is being worn properly.
“Then we started swabbing everyone,” she said.
Between Sunday and Monday, all residents were swabbed for COVID-19 tests and all staff were offered swabbing tests as well. So far, all tests have come back negative, save for one lingering test, she said.
“It’s amazing. It really speaks to the staff’s diligence in infection prevention and control before they knew about the case,” Schnepf said.
When asked how the resident could have acquired the virus, Schnepf said it’s difficult for any facility to know for sure where positive cases come from.
However, no staff members had called in sick with any symptoms at the time or over previous weeks, she said, so it’s possible the resident caught the virus from a visitor who was recently ill with mild symptoms, even though they were wearing a mask.
“That’s how persistent this virus can be.”
The resident who tested positive is doing “really well” at this time despite some mild symptoms, Schnepf said.
“We know it can change quickly. But we're really happy to see that this person is doing well right now.”
