WRHA PCH COVID-19 Status Update

March 11, 2022

The WRHA’s long-term care program funds and oversees the operations of 39 long-term care facilities (LTCs), including 38 personal care homes (PCHs) and the St. Amant LTC health care facility, in the Winnipeg health region.

The WRHA has implemented and is managing a comprehensive system-wide approach to protect and care for residents and staff at Winnipeg PCH facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks. This involves coordination with WRHA clinical management, PCH management and staff, regional programs, and community partners.

Current status:

As of 12:00 p.m., March 10, there were seven LTCs with a declared active COVID-19 outbreak among Winnipeg’s 39 LTC facilities.

For COVID-19, an outbreak is defined and declared with a total of two cases (staff, resident, visitor), epi-linked within 10 days of each other, and where at least one could have been acquired in the long-term care site.

An outbreak may be declared over after one incubation period without any new cases following the isolation of the last case, which aligns with the guidance for acute-care facilities.

New provincewide guidance took effect Feb 2, allowing for unit-specific outbreak management at long-term care facilities. This change, which aligns with existing practice in the acute-care sector, is now reflected in the list of long-term care facilities in outbreak located at the bottom of this post. For information on unit-specific operational measures, please contact the long-term care facility directly.

For a complete list of facilities with active COVID-19 outbreaks, please scroll to the bottom of this post.

Measures underway:

Visitation

Beginning March 1, proof of vaccination will no longer be required for Designated Family Caregivers or general visitors to PCHs. A medical mask will continue to be required upon entry to any PCH and care teams will continue to provide guidance related to any additional personal protective equipment required.

Visitor guidelines will be evolving during this time to appropriately balance the risks posed by visitation with the benefits of visitation for residents. Restrictions on visitation will remain in place for facilities or units experiencing outbreaks.

Please contact individual PCHs directly for information on their current visitation procedures. For the provincewide guidance on visitation, please click here

Staffing

Staffing is largely stable across the region. Nevertheless, we continue to monitor staffing closely. PCHs have been advised to review their pandemic staffing plans, along with the Provincial Long-Term Care Pandemic Plan, and to implement service delivery and staffing strategies to mitigate the risk.

Processes are in place to redeploy staff from other WRHA service areas to PCHs, as required and available, to PCHs experiencing an outbreak. We are also working with the Provincial Recruitment and Redeployment Team (PRRT) to assist PCHs in need of extra staffing supports.

On-site supports to PCHs and resident care

WRHA Infection Prevention and Control coordinators are providing support to sites in outbreak, and a WRHA clinical lead continues to be available to all homes as needed to provide a review of risks within the facility and suggest mitigation measures.

The majority of PCH residents in Winnipeg have received their booster (third) dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (94.3% of Winnipeg PCH residents, as of Feb 9). Eight deaths have been reported in association with the current outbreaks*. PCHs report that the majority of COVID-positive residents are experiencing mild symptoms.

*Deaths are reflected in this count if residents who passed away tested positive for COVID, but not all are necessarily causal due to COVID.

Infection Prevention and Control measures that are implemented at PCHs with declared outbreaks include:

• Enhanced droplet/contact precautions
• Active case finding
• Specimen collection
• Increased environmental cleaning
• Education (e.g., hand hygiene, PPE, outbreak measures)
• Restricted visitation
• Additional signage used
• Cease group activities
• Dedicated equipment
• Increased auditing (e.g., hand hygiene, PPE, etc)

Management and Oversight

The management teams of the WRHA long-term care program and of PCH sites experiencing an outbreak meet regularly to share information, progress and challenges, and problem-solve in real time. PCH operators share site-specific observations and learnings to support the delivery of system-wide long-term care across the region.

Winnipeg LTC facilities currently experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks (as of March 10, 2022):

(For information about which units are in outbreak, or for unit-specific operational measures, please contact the long-term care facility directly.)

• Actionmarguerite St. Vital – 1 unit
• Bethania PCH – 1 unit
• Luther Home
• Middlechurch PCH – 2 units
• River Park Gardens – 1 unit
• Riverview Health Centre – 2 units
• Tuxedo Villa – 3 units