Zainab Al-Mehdar
Pontiac Aug 25, 2022
On Monday, August 22 Les Ami(e)s du Manoir St-Joseph declared an outbreak at the residence.
After five people started showing symptoms and testing positive, the staff decided to test the rest of the residents, said Colleen Larivière, director of the residence.
“It’s not a good situation. But it’s a situation that we are working very positively towards getting resolved,” she said.
Currently, there are 19 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 with three that were hospitalized and six that have recovered.
They had been fortunate for the past two years without any significant cases of covid but with things back open it was hard to avoid it, said Larivière.
“Not something I would wish on anybody but we are doing well and we’re doing our very best,” said Larivière.
Since Monday, meal and snack time has been served in the resident’s rooms and activities have been cancelled for the duration of the time to lessen close contact. For the residents that do not have covid, they are still able to take walks outside, but the rest are currently being closely monitored by the staff, she said.
Larivière explained that the staff have been following all the protocols by wearing the N95 masks, wearing PPE when interacting with residents who are isolating and closely monitoring folks for symptoms and testing right away. Although they didn’t have any outbreaks in the past, they were prepared with all the equipment, she highlighted.
“The staff has been great and they’re pulling together and we’re working together,” she said, adding that it took some time to adjust and get organized as three of her 22 employees are out due to covid but they have been able to manage and are working to ensure their residents are safe, while keeping morale high.
As for covid cases in Quebec, there has not been any deaths reported in the past 24 hours but the province has seen 473 new cases. The healthcare system is still short-staffed with 3,403 healthcare workers absent for covid-related reasons.
