More staff test positive for coronavirus at Kitchener home where 51 residents have died

Four more staff members at Forest Heights Long-Term Care have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to numbers released by Waterloo Public Health on Friday.

“These were picked up as part of the most recent round of testing at Forest Heights as part of very close monitoring of the outbreak situation,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Region of Waterloo Public Health’s Acting Medical Officer of Health said.

“They were all asymptomatic cases. A careful assessment of each case is conducted. Staff were wearing appropriate PPE and the risk to residents and other staff is considered low.”

The Kitchener facility has had 51 residents suffer COVID-19-related deaths since an outbreak was first declared on April 1.

Since then, 73 staff members and 158 residents tested positive for the virus.

The province put St. Mary’s General Hospital in charge of Forest Heights Long-Term Care on June 2 in hopes it could put an end to the deadly outbreak.

It is one of three current outbreaks in the area with the others being at Sunnyside Home Long-Term Care in Kitchener and Parkwood Mennonite Home in Waterloo.

Three new new positive tests were announcedby Waterloo Public Health lifting the total number of cases in the region to 1,280. This lifts the rolling seven-day average of new cases to 7.42.

There have now been 31,925 coronavirus tests conducted in Waterloo Region, which is an increase of 573 from Thursday’s update.

There were four more people cleared of the virus in Waterloo Region, raising the total number of resolved cases in the area to 1,069.

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There were no new deaths reported on Thursday, leaving the death toll at 115 including 95 residents of long-term care or retirement homes.

Ontario reported 111 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 34,316.

Friday’s report marks the lowest increase the province has seen within a 24-hour period since March 25, when 100 new cases were reported.

“While very welcome news, we shouldn’t draw too many conclusions from one day of data,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said. “Rather, we’ll continue to keep a close eye on what is hopefully the continuation of our downward trend.”

The death toll in the province has risen to 2,644, as three more deaths were reported.

*With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues