What happened: The B.C. government has released a full list of the 21 seniors' care homes that have had an employee or a resident test positive for COVID-19, including two new homes that have recorded infections in the past 24 hours.
Why this matters: Many residents in these homes, and their families, are concerned about outbreaks at these homes because the fatality rate from COVID-19 has been estimated at about 15% in seniors. The "vast majority" of the 25 COVID-19 deaths in the province have been at seniors' care homes, according to the provincial health officer.
The B.C. government on April 1 released a full list of the 21 seniors' care homes in B.C. that have reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 – the first time that it has revealed the names of all homes since March 27.
There are two major outbreaks, at North Vancouver's Lynn Valley Care Centre and Vancouver's Haro Park Centre. All 21 homes in the province that have had at least one resident or employee test positive for the virus that has caused a global pandemic are in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions.
The ones in Vancouver Coastal Health are:
• Lynn Valley long-term care facility;
• Hollyburn long-term care facility;
• Haro Park long-term care facility;
• German Canadian House long-term care facility;
• Little Mountain long-term care facility;
• Broadway Pentecostal Lodge long-term care facility;
• Windermere Care Centre long-term care facility;
• Villa Cathay long-term care facility;
• Inglewood Lodge long-term care facility;
• Royal Arch Masonic Home long-term care facility; and
• Berkley Care Centre long-term care facility.
The seniors' homes in Fraser Health are:
• Delta View long-term care facility;
• Dufferin Care Centre (Coquitlam)
• Evergreen Baptist Complex (includes assisted living and long-term care facility, and manor - seniors rental);
• The Harrison at Elim Village long-term care facility;
• Langley Gardens long-term care facility;
• Shaughnessy Care Centre long-term care facility;
• Amica Retirement Home long-term care facility;
• Langley Lodge long-term care facility;
• Swedish Canadian Manor assisted living; and
• Cedarbrook Chateau independent living.
Henry said that she and her team have learned a lot from the outbreaks at Haro Park Centre, and particularly Lynn Valley Care Centre.
"There is a very low threshold for testing people in long-term care, both residents and staff, and even a single staff case or resident case is treated like an outbreak – managed very aggressively as an outbreak," said Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer, on April 1.
She said that Lynn Valley Care Centre "continues to have ongoing issues with two new cases identified, although the measures in place there are now, we hope, beginning to take effect," she said. "It just really reflects the challenging situation when you have transmission ongoing in a facility and the importance of catching these really early."
Henry did not clarify if those two new cases at Lynn Valley Care Centre are new as of the last 24 hours, or new compared with March 26, when she last reported full numbers for cases at all seniors' care homes that were then known.
Back then, Lynn Valley Care Centre had 70 cases, including 46 residents and 24 employees and Haro Park Centre had 58 infections involving 30 residents and 28 workers.
The only other seniors' care home in the province where there has been more than one case confirmed is West Vancouver's Hollyburn House, where there is at least one resident and one worker.
