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38 residents test positive for cornavirus at Northwood nursing home in Halifax

Two women walk past Northwood Manor in Halifax on Monday, April 13, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Northwood nursing home is witnessing a spike in novel coronavirus infections as the nursing home now has 38 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, the home said on Wednesday.

This is an increase of seven since Tuesday. In addition, 11 more staff at the Halifax campus have tested positive for the virus, bringing the number of infected staff to 21.

According to Northwood, the number of confirmed cases in home support workers and health services staff remains the same as on Tuesday, with four home support workers and two health services staff having tested positive.

The nursing home said it has 485 individuals living in its Halifax campus long-term care facility in two separate buildings, which according to Northwood puts it in a “unique position” to be doing its own testing for residents and staff.

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“[This] allows us to expedite testing and receipt of results. We are testing anyone with any symptoms as well as close contacts and are continually contact tracing and testing staff,” said Northwood in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon.

In the meantime, Northwood’s Bedford campus remains devoid of any cases.

Northwood also announced that several of its residents who were identified as part of the first COVID-19-positive group are now feeling much better.

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“There remain many unknowns regarding this virus. Our clinical team is working closely with Public Health as we care for each of these residents and look forward to the day they are officially considered to have their COVID-19 infection resolved,” Northwood said.

To date, Northwood has performed over 400 COVID-19 tests. In the past 24 hours, the nursing home said they tested 175 more people since the last update.

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