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August 29, 2021

Dear Families and Residents of Kamloops Seniors Village,

We thank you again for your continued patience during these uncertain times.

 Please see our updates below as a follow up to our previous daily communication regarding our current Complex Care/Long Term Care 1B & 1C Neighbourhood Outbreak that was declared by the Interior Health Authority Medical Health Officer on August 27, 2021.


To provide some background knowledge of our community, Kamloops Seniors Village is a Campus of Care where we offer all three levels of care under one roof.

 On the West side of our building, we have 114 Complex Care/Long Term Care Studio Suites within six (6) Neighbourhoods. Three (3) Complex Care Neighbourhoods are located on the first floor (1A, 1B, &1C), and then three (3) Neighbourhoods are located on the second floor (2A, 2B, & 2C). And then on our East Side of the building, we have 101 Assisted-Independent Living apartment style suites.


As of today, Sunday, August 29, 2021, no new residents or staff are showing any concerns at this time.

 The second round of asymptomatic COVID-19 Nasal Pharyngeal testing for all 1B & 1C Neighbourhood residents (excluding the previous positive residents) will take place tomorrow, August 30, 2021 per the Medical Health Officer.

All KSV staff that worked on the Complex Care 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods from August 3 to current are considered exposed since the infectious period goes back 2 weeks, therefore asymptomatic rapid testing is being conducted. The MHO is contacting all impacted staff.

o   Any positive rapid tests (test sample is positive to the antigen) will need to get a Nasal Pharyngeal COVID Test and isolate until the results are available.


What Does This Outbreak Mean?

Per the Interior Health and Medical Health Officer, the following Control Measures are in place:

–       Complex Care 1C Neighbourhood Residents & the 2 Unvaccinated 1B Residents are considered exposed with the recent positive resident cases, therefore they will continued to be isolated to their room and will enjoy tray service and meal assistance until further notice. This reduced contact provides increased protection to your loved ones and prevents exposure to the entire community.

–       The remaining Complex Care 1B Neighbourhood residents are isolated to their neighbourhood ONLY and will continue to be monitored for signs and symptoms

–       Recreation group activities continue to be cancelled on the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods; other Complex Care neighbourhoods’ recreation activities are proceeding, but are restricted to their own neighbourhood cohort & socially distanced in small groups

 –       Social Visitations continue to be cancelled on both the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods

o   Social visitation continues on other remaining Complex Care neighbourhoods, as well as Independent-Assisted Living with standard screening protocols in place

o   Visitors must continue to wear their medical grade mask to/from the suite through common areas & visits are only permitted in their loved ones suites or designated spaces (RC Courtyard, Front Gazebo Garden). The Assisted-Living Bistro and Patio are currently tenant spaces only and cannot be used for visits.

o   Per the Interior Health Authority, if your loved one is unvaccinated, then masks must be worn at all times regardless of the visitor’s vaccination status

 

–       Essential Visitation (per the MHO Guidelines) is permitted on the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods for ONLY Fully Vaccinated Essential Visitors. They must follow full PPE parameters (gowns/mask/face shield).

–       Palliative Visitation is permitted on the 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods, but visitors must follow full PPE parameters (gowns/mask/face shield) within the neighbourhood. Unvaccinated visitors must isolate 10 days from the date of the most recent visit date

–       Urgent Appointments for 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods can continue, but must be approved/deemed urgent by their Medical Practitioner


What Are the Next Steps?

–       Our Recreation team is working on an Action Plan for the affected Complex Care 1B & 1C residents to facilitate Recreation Aide 1:1 Visits & virtual visits. They recently delivered activity care packages to all isolated residents to utilize in their room and are creating window décor with hearts and cheerful messaging to keep everyone in good spirits.

–       Our staff continue to diligently monitor our remaining residents for symptoms.

o   As a standard practice throughout the pandemic, ALL residents are continued to be screened twice daily for COVID-19 symptoms including their temperature. Only residents with symptoms are to be tested per the health authority and the BC Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC) parameters unless otherwise instructed by the Medical Health Officer; the BC CDC information is found here. Therefore, if your family member requires testing, you will be contacted by phone.

–       Our Clinical Team will have routine calls three (3) times per week with the Interior Health and Medical Health Officer to review our outbreak response plan & to communicate further developments

–       We continue to implement our proactive Outbreak procedures that we started on August 19, 2021 with co-horting our care staff and support service staff members.

–       Our staff continue to wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in all the right places.  Any time staff are going into a COVID positive resident’s room to provide care they will be wearing full PPE (gown, gloves & goggles or face shield).  All other times staff will be wearing masks and goggles or face shields other than when physically eating.

–       We continue to be attentive to our hand hygiene practices. Hand washing, hand washing, and hand washing.

–       Our housekeeping team continue to perform enhanced cleaning through the community including using our handheld electrostatic disinfection system throughout common areas & resident rooms as it’s able to spray larger surfaces more efficiently.


On August 19, 2021, we were informed that a fully vaccinated staff member who last worked on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 (Evening Shift) in the Complex Care [Long Term Care] 1C neighborhood, has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

On, Friday, August 20, 2021, we were informed a subsequent 1C Neighbourhood staff member had also tested positive, & last worked on Wednesday, August 18, 2021 (Day Shift).

We had a call on Friday, August 20, 2021 with the Health Authority and medical health officer (MHO) and discussed the second positive case. The two cases have been identified as unrelated per the health authority’s contact tracing since both staff members developed symptoms on the same day & had no contact with each other. Therefore, at that time the health authority did NOT declare us on an outbreak but rather directed us to operate in a “heightened precaution” mode.

We had another call with the Health Authority on August 24, 2021. Since the 1B & 1C neighbourhoods share a kitchen area, the Medical Health Office directed us to cancel social visitation & recreation activities on the 1B Complex Care [Long Term Care] Neighbourhood.

On August, 25, 2021, as a precautionary measure, the Medical Health Officer and Interior Health directed us to COVID test all residents on the 1C Complex Care [Long Term Care] Neighbourhood, as well as 2 unvaccinated residents on the 1B Neighbourhood.

Unfortunately, three (3) tests have come back positive on the 1C Complex Care [Long Term Care] Neighbourhood, 2 of which were asymptomatic. All remaining residents’ tests were negative.

We contacted the affected resident’s families and IHA began contract tracing after they were notified.

Both staff members are still isolating at home and doing well with minimal symptoms, regular wellness checks have continued.

On Friday, August 27, 2021, we had an afternoon call with the Interior Health Authority and Medical Health Officer (MHO). The MHO has reviewed our current COVID cases and facility information. The MHO declared a COVID-19 Outbreak on the Complex Care/Long Term Care 1B & 1C Neighbourhoods ONLY, with ongoing contact tracing investigations occurring. The outbreak will continue for a minimum for 28 days from the last positive COVID-19 Case.

 On the positive side, this outbreak DOES NOT affect our Independent & Assisted Living Apartment side of the building, nor the remaining 1A, 2A, 2B, & 2C Complex Care Neighbourhoods at this time. This may change upon further developments.

Recreation group activities and programs continue in the unaffected areas following our standard health & safety precautions. We are diligently working to keep everyone safe and content during these unprecedented times.


All updates will continue to be communicated to you in daily communications such as this, which will also be posted to the Community Update Section of our Website after it is sent out to you.  If you have other family or friends who would like to be updated, please feel free to direct them to www.retirementconcepts.com


Deliveries

All deliveries continue to be received.  All items will be sanitized and delivered directly to the resident’s suites.

Teamwork

We would like to thank you all for your understanding, patience and support. It takes a village and we appreciate all the kind words of support we have received thus far. They mean so much to us and especially the staff.


Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to Cara Haughton, our Community Relations Manager at 250-574-0037, or via email.


Staff COVID-19 Vaccination Information

We also wanted to provide some further information regarding the current mandates for staff vaccinations. As a licensed Long Term Care (Complex Care) and Assisted Living community, we follow the mandates of the BC Provincial Health Officer. The current health order stipulates that the COVID-19 vaccine is encouraged, but not mandatory.

Recently on August 12, 2021, Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Medical Health Officer, announced a new upcoming mandate where all Long Term Care & Assisted Living staff must have a Covid-19 vaccine by October 12. The details of the news release is found here.

We continue to promote immunization to our staff, but they have until October 12 to comply with the new mandate. We are awaiting the details of this mandate in writing from the Interior Health Authority in order to comply by the October 12 deadline.  All staff continue to wear masks and proper PPE in addition to stringent hand washing protocols.

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness. It can spread through droplets when a person coughs or sneezes, or touching the virus with your hands then touching your face before washing your hands. Symptoms of COVID-19 may be mild or severe. These may include fever, cough, fatigue, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, headache, malaise, vomiting or diarrhea. More severe symptoms can include difficulty breathing or chest pain. While most people will experience mild illness, older adults and people with pre-existing medical conditions are at higher risk for severe illness. Symptoms can be checked online at https://covid19.thrive.health/

For more information you can call 1-888-COVID-19 or text 604-030-0300 for non-medical COVID-19 questions and 8-1-1 for medical COVID-19 questions.

If you are looking to stay up to date on current COVID-19 information, we encourage you to look at the following resources.  They are concise, accurate and informative.

Sincerely, The Kamloops Team