One person has been arrested for making a hoax call in early March to the B.C. care home that was the site of the first COVID-19 community outbreak in Canada.
The Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver was home to the first of the 8,796 Canadians who have, to date, lost their lives to the novel coronavirus.
In those early days, when staff were still learning about the virus and scrambling to change their way of working, they received a phone call.
In a release, staff says the call “appeared to originate from health authorities” but does not provide any more details about what the person said. However, the call “deeply alarmed” the staff and the facility say it took “immediate action” out of concern for the safety of the residents.
They learned the next day the call was a hoax but according to staff, “a great deal of harm had already been done to our capacity to provide the high standard of care for which LVCC has come to be known.”
The contents of the call have since become evidence in an ongoing RCMP investigation and one person has now been arrested. North Vancouver RCMP is not releasing any more details at this time, only saying the person was arrested and released with no charges.
“Our LVCC family can rest a little easier now in that knowledge,” care home staff said in a release.
At Lynn Valley, 20 residents died from the virus.
As of May 4, the facility is now COVID-19 free.