Longest Kelowna care home COVID-19 outbreak finally ends; 17 lives lost

The COVID-19 outbreak at Cottonwoods Care Centre long-term care in Kelowna, B.C., has finally been declared over.

In all, 17 of the 70 people who contracted the disease at Cottonwoods died. Of those infected during the three-month-long outbreak, 55 were residents and 15 were Cottonwoods staff members. There are 221 publicly-funded long-term care beds at the facility.

2:32 Mandatory vaccines for long-term care staff expected to significantly reduce outbreaks of COVID-19

“This has been our longest COVID-19 outbreak and it has really been a team effort to get this outbreak under control and declared over,” Dr. Sue Pollock, Interior Health interim chief medical health officer said in a press release.

“The additional steps we are taking across all long-term care sites, including providing booster doses to residents and requiring proof of vaccine for visitors and staff, continue to be important to limiting the spread of this virus.”

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British Columbia reported 555 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, along with 11 additional deaths.

0:24 IHA monitoring staff vaccinations at Cottonwoods Care Centre in Kelowna

The update lifted the province’s seven-day average for new cases to 520. The figure has been steadily edging upward since hitting a fourth-wave low of 477 on Friday.

–With files from Simon Little