Eight more people from long-term care homes in Waterloo Region have suffered COVID-19-related deaths including six at Forest Heights Long-Term Care in Kitchener, according to Waterloo Public Health.
The agency says that the other deaths involved a second person at Trinity Village Long-Term Care home in Kitchener and someone at peopleCare AR Goudie which is also located in Kitchener.
This is by far the biggest one-day spike the area has seen since the first death was recorded on March 31.
There have now been 39 COVID-19-related deaths in Waterloo Region with 29 of those involving people from long-term care or retirement homes including 18 residents of Forest Heights.
About 40 residents of Forest Heights were to be moved to area hospitals this week after more than 100 residents and 45 staff members tested positive at the facility which is home to 250 people.
The home’s owners, Revera, says that backup has arrived as procedures are implemented to battle the virus.
“We appreciate the support of Ontario Health West Region for assigning 12 additional PSWs to Forest Heights on a temporary basis. Revera’s recruitment team has also succeeded in hiring 20 additional staff for a variety of roles in the home,” Revera’s chief medical officer Dr. Rhonda Collins said in a statement.
“We are singularly focused on doing everything we can to contain this outbreak and are working closely with public health experts to implement and comply with their directives,” she said.
A large outbreak continues to spread at Trinity Village as 26 residents and 25 staff members have now tested positive for the coronavirus.
Another 32 people have tested positive in Waterloo Region for the virus bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 582, according to Waterloo Public Health.
It provides a daily update on the spread of the virus on its website based upon where things stood at 7 p.m. the night before.
The province announced 634 new cases across Ontario which is a new high although it has also increased the amount of testing taking place.
The Ontario government says that 54 more people have suffered COVID-19 related deaths bring the total number of deaths to 713 while the total number of cases has risen to 12,879.
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