A Collingwood woman is the first person in her 100s in the region to test positive for COVID-19.
She is a resident at Collingwood Nursing Home and was one of three women (the others in their 80s and 90s) whose test results came back positive on May 13.
The three women are not showing symptoms of COVID-19, according to Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
The women were tested along with the rest of the residents and staff at Collingwood Nursing Home as part of the province’s mandated universal testing of all long-term care facilities.
“Certainly the fact that they were asymptomatic is new for us,” said Gardner. “This is the first time we have discovered an outbreak by this means. All the others were individuals who had developed symptoms and were then investigated.”
Previously, an outbreak was declared at Allandale Station Retirement Residence in Barrie where a resident without symptoms tested positive for the virus. However, two more subsequent tests produced negative results and the case was deemed a “false positive” and the outbreak rescinded.
Gardner said that’s unlikely the case for the Collingwood women.
“I think it’s exceedingly unlikely that all three of those tests are false positives,” said Gardner.
He said re-testing of the women, should they remain asymptomatic, wouldn’t be “routine,” but acknowledged there has been an instance where an asymptomatic long-term care resident was re-tested.
“We are certainly learning as we go on this … It’s a new outbreak, and I need to go over it with my staff,” said Gardner, noting not all the tests from the region’s universal long-term care testing have come back with results yet.
“We will certainly want to know the results of all the other testing," he added.
A letter from Collingwood Nursing Home’s administrator, Peter Zober, noted all other residents in the home have tested negative. The three women have been isolated at the home.
Collingwood Nursing Home is one of three long-term care homes in Simcoe County now in a COVID-19 outbreak.
Owen Hill Care Community (Barrie) has been in an outbreak since April 24. Today, the health unit confirmed a new case in a staff member, a Barrie woman in her 30s. She is the 20th staff member at the facility to test positive for COVID-19. There have been 27 confirmed cases in residents and seven residents have died.
An outbreak declared at Bradford Valley Care Community (Bradford) on March 23 appears to be nearly over, as Gardner said there is one remaining active case at that facility.
“They are very close to having their outbreak over,” said Gardner.
In total, there were 42 lab-confirmed cases associated with the outbreak in Bradford, including 35 residents, 12 of whom have died. There were 11 staff who tested positive for the coronavirus.
There is also an outbreak at Bayview Retirement Home in Waubaushene, where two residents and three staff have been confirmed positive.
In total, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has reported 104 cases associated with long-term care outbreaks, which is about 26 per cent of the total cases (406) reported in the region since the pandemic began.
