Coronavirus: Deadly long-term care outbreak in South Okanagan to be reviewed

A review into Interior Health’s largest and deadliest COVID-19 outbreak at a long-term care facility will be reviewed by public health officials.

The outbreak at the McKinney Place care home in Oliver, B.C., was first declared on Dec. 6, when eight residents tested positive for the virus.

That number more than quadrupled in just one week.

“There is nothing I could say to describe how concerned I am about this,” Oliver mayor Martin Johansen told Global News on Dec. 15. This has got to be the worst case scenario that I could imagine.”

Seventeen people, all residents, died after contracting COVID-19 in just over a month.

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A total of 55 out of the 59 residents ended up getting infected at the IHA-operated facility.

Twenty-three staff members also tested positive for the virus.

The outbreak was declared over on Jan. 18.

“The COVID-19 outbreak at McKinney Place was one of Interior Health’s most challenging outbreaks and we are grateful it has been declared over,” IHA stated in an email to Global News Monday.

IHA recently announced it will conduct a “lessons learned” type of review following the devastating outbreak.

“We want to avoid another outbreak like this if possible, and as part of the quality review process, Interior Health is planning to look at what lessons can be learned and see what can be improved in managing an outbreak,” the statement added.

At the onset of the outbreak, Interior Health said the rapid spread of the virus inside the facility was largely due to shared rooms.

“We are not surprised, sadly, that it does spread quickly, because we know that people are in close contact all the time, ” said Dr. Albert de Villers on Dec. 9, chief medical health officer with IHA.

“We know that at that facility as well we do some of the older-style 4-bed rooms where people share closer, they potentially share bathrooms, and they all eat in the same place”

No further details regarding the review were released, with IHA stating in the e-mail “we are in the early stages”.

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