WRHA PCH COVID-19 Status Update
March 29, 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 28, there were six LTCs with a declared active COVID-19 outbreak among Winnipeg’s 39 LTC facilities.
For COVID-19, an outbreak is defined and declared when a total of two or more residents, who are not roommates, do not share a bathroom between two resident rooms, or are not tablemates, acquire healthcare-associated infections on a unit within 10 days of each other.
An outbreak may be declared over after 10 days with no new COVID-19 healthcare-associated infection cases after the last case isolated.
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). Seven 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 28, 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 – 4 units
- Luther Home
- Simkin Centre – 1 unit
- Tuxedo Villa – 2 units
- Holy Family Home – 1 unit
As of April 1st, the WRHA will be pausing regular PCH outbreak updates. For questions about outbreaks, you can contact media relations at [email protected]. For other questions regarding visitation/PPE/etc., you can contact the specific PCH directly.
A current list of outbreaks at WRHA facilities can be found at: https://wrha.mb.ca/infection-prevention-control/outbreaks/.