Coronavirus outbreak declared over at another Metro Vancouver care home
Crediting the “implementation of comprehensive strategies,” Fraser Health officials said on Friday that the COVID-19 outbreak over at Langley Lodge has now been declared over.
The Langley Lodge is a contracted long term care facility operated by Langley Care Society, and to support the facility in its efforts to contain and ultimately eliminate the outbreak, Fraser Health said a number of actions were taken.
These actions and safety measures include the following:
- allowing only essential visitors
- restricting staff and resident movement in the facility
- enhancing cleaning and infection control measures
- communicating with patients, residents, staff and families to address questions and advise on next steps
- providing twice a day screening of all staff and residents for COVID-19 symptoms
Additionally, due to a “number of complex factors” contributing to this outbreak, Fraser Health said it appointed its own Director of Pandemic Response to provide oversight of COVID-19 response at Langley Lodge.
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“We worked very closely with Langley Lodge to further support the facility leadership and staff,” the health authority said in a statement. “In addition to the COVID-19 outbreak control measures, we deployed our ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) machine to the site with infection control specialists. ”
Additional nurses and care staff were also deployed “to ensure resident care needs continued to be met.”
The news of the now-over outbreak comes the same week that BC health officials said visitors will now once again be allowed at long-term care facilities.
In making that announcement, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said “we are going to start slowly.”
To begin with, “residents will be able to have a single designated visitor, in a designated visiting area in each facility” said Henry. “As we expect things will progress well, we will expand these activities, as we have done with every other activity, and we will be monitoring this on an ongoing basis to ensure we can expand as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Like many other businesses that have already reopened, she continued, “these facilities will need to have plans and precautions in place.”
Among these precautions are the stipulations that visitors still won’t be allowed at any facility in the midst of an outbreak, and there will be dedicated staff to screen everybody who enters the facility and “provide the guidance that’s needed to ensure that visitors are able to do [so] safely.”
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