Health officials are working to contain a resurgent novel coronavirus outbreak at a Langley residential care home that has claimed five lives.
It is the second outbreak to be recorded at the Langley Lodge.
The first outbreak, which began in March and involved a single staff member, was declared over in late April.
On April 29, a new outbreak was declared and has grown to 38 cases, including at least five staff members, in addition to the fatalities. There are 139 beds at the facility.
Ten of the 15 new cases recorded in B.C. on Thursday and seven of the new cases on Friday were associated with the facility.
Fraser Health chief medical health officer Dr. Martin Lavoie said officials have determined the second outbreak originated with a staff member.
However, he said investigators are still working to determine how the virus spread so widely despite enhanced screening and cleaning measures at the site after the initial outbreak.
“Typically when we see something like this we have a period of very, very little activity and then we have quite a number of cases identified over the course of a few days. There’s probably something that happened where there was transmission,” he said.
“COVID-19 spreads very easily, and we have a situation also when we have a dementia unit involved, it’s actually more challenging even to control movement of patients and contact with other residents,” he said.
Lavoie said visitor restrictions remain in place, along with enhanced cleaning and infection control measures. He said Fraser Health is also assisting the facility in communicating with family members.
Fraser Health says Langley Lodge had already implemented a single-site order for workers at the facility prior to the initial outbreak.
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