Health officials are expecting more COVID-19 tests could come back positive at the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre as the number of cases there jumped to 14 as of Thursday.
The eight additional cases were announced as part of Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s daily update.
A woman in her 80s who was a resident of the facility died earlier this week after testing positive for the virus, marking Alberta’s second death linked to the illness.
At the time, officials said three others — a staff member and two residents — had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 11 others were showing symptoms.
Eight residents tested positive Wednesday, Hinshaw said, and they’re all self-isolating while being treated.
Hinshaw said Thursday that it’s too early to say whether that outbreak is contained.
“We are still in relatively early days.
“And, with the long incubation period of the virus, I think it will take some time before we are able to tell if all of the people who were exposed at the beginning of this outbreak have passed through that incubation period,” she said.
“What’s important is that every single one of the residents there — both those who have symptoms, those who don’t have symptoms — that they’re all getting the support and care that they need and that anyone who does have symptoms is kept away from others.
“All appropriate precautions in terms of cleaning and, again, the support for staff and residents, that’s all taking place right now.
“Because of that long incubation period, I expect we will see more cases in the days to come.”
In her update on Tuesday, Hinshaw said it appeared the death was due to community transmission of the virus.
Alberta had 486 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, with officials estimating 34 of those were the result of community transmission.
Global News has reached out to the McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre for comment. This story will be update when we receive a response.
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