Two residents at Mission’s Chartwell Cedarbrooke Retirement Residence on 7th Ave. have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Fraser Health confirmed the cases, and one case at the Swedish Assisted Living Residence in Burnaby, earlier this afternoon (April 1).
Communication with residents and families is underway.
Dr. Martin Lavoie, chief medical health officer, at Fraser Health spoke to media and said the residents are now self isolating in their apartments and not in a hospital, adding their symptoms are not considered serious.
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Now that they have identified the two residents who have COVID-19, Lavoie said they can look at other potential cases.
Fraser Health will investigate who was in contact with the residents – other residents and staff in particular who were taking care of that person – or any other person who has been in contact.
“And, what we do next is, out of this list of potential contacts, we try to assess if they were in really, really close contact. If potentially they were close enough to be exposed to COVID-19 and then we give them instructions in terms of what to do. So to self isolate and check for symptoms.”
He said if it was spread they have to identify it very quickly. Staff and residents will be screened for symptoms at least twice a day.
A Fraser Health SWAT team is now on site.
“In any situation like this we send a SWAT team, so a group of people with various backgrounds, to help support, of course, all the measures to make sure there is prevention of the spread of COVID-19.”
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The team will also assist any staff or residents who are having any health issues, concerns or mental health issues.
However, residents and staff will not be automatically tested for COVID-19.
“To test we actually require people to have respiratory symptoms,” explained Lavoie.
To prevent the transmission of COVID-19, Fraser Health is ensuring staff currently working at Chartwell Cedarbrooke will not be working at any other facility.
Other measure put into place include:
Staffing levels will be maintained to provide resident care.
Visitors have been limited to only essential visitors.
Staff and residents movement in the facility has been restricted.
Cleaning and infection control measures have been enhanced.
kevin.mills@missioncityrecord.com
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