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15 residents die in past week at New Westminster care home

Fifteen residents have died at the Royal City Manor long-term care home in the past week, bringing the total at the New Westminster facility to 19 since an outbreak of the coronavirus in early January.

Fifteen residents have died at the Royal City Manor long-term care home in the past week, bringing the total at the New Westminster facility to 19 since an outbreak of the coronavirus in early January.

The outbreak had followed another that ended in late December with no deaths.

Thirty-eight residents at long-term care homes in B.C. died in the week ending Thursday, Jan. 27, according to information that is now being published on a weekly basis by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

The province began publishing the information under pressure to be more transparent about what was happening in individual care homes, which have been hit hard in the pandemic with 712 deaths, accounting for 60 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in the province.

Royal City Manor is owned by Revera, a large seniors’ residence operator in Canada that is a subsidiary of a federal Crown corporation that manages the pension plans for the federal public service, the Canadian Forces and the RCMP.

Dr. Rhonda Collins, Revera’s chief medical officer, said Royal City Manor has been working closely with the Fraser Health Authority throughout the outbreak and is maintaining pandemic outbreak protocols and infection control practices.

“All residents in the home have been asked to self-isolate in their rooms,” Collins said in a statement.

“Meals are served in resident rooms with supervision and assistance as required.”

As of Thursday, 95 residents and 27 staff had tested positive at the 165-bed home, according to Revera.

Collins said enhanced cleaning was taking place at Royal City Manor.

All residents were being monitored closely for symptoms and being tested if they show any potential signs or symptoms of the virus, she said.

Staff are screened at the beginning and end of their shifts and required to wear a mask, gown and eye protection.

As of last week, vaccination clinics had been completed at all long-term care and assisted living homes in B.C.

All residents and staff at Royal City Manor who provided consent and were able to be vaccinated have received their first dose, according to Revera, who didn’t say how many that was — but the province has said that generally uptake has been high.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s health officer, noted this week that residents in long-term care homes who were recently diagnosed and still ill with COVID-19, were not eligible to be immunized.

Revera expects a second dose will be made available to residents and staff in the coming weeks.

The first two vaccines approved for use in Canada — Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — require two doses.

In response to questions from Postmedia, Fraser Health officials said they were supporting staffing levels to maintain resident care at Royal City Manor and they have a presence at the site to take any further actions that are required.

“This includes dedicated people to address quality, answer questions from staff, residents and family, and provide active checks of symptoms with staff and residents,” Fraser Health spokeswoman Carrie Stefanson said in a statement.

Fraser Health is following up with those who were not able to receive a vaccination during the first immunization clinic, said Stefanson.

The latest B.C. Centre for Disease Control information shows there were another three deaths at St. Michael’s Centre in Burnaby in the past week, increasing deaths to 17.

There were another four deaths at Noric House in Vernon, bringing the total to eight, and three more deaths at Sunnybank Retirement Centre in Oliver, bringing the total to five.