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.”

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