This Ontario long-term care home still hasn't had a single case of COVID-19
A long-term care home in Ontario has been able to prevent COVID-19 from spreading to any of its residents since the onset of the pandemic.
"Knowing no one has COVID has been like truly a miracle," Kella Demiglio, whose mother Esther is a resident at Mariann Home in Richmond Hill.
CEO Bernard Boreland was ahead of the curve in January 2020, stockpiling personal protective equipment and implementing a number a preventive measures before provincial officials did so, including ensuring staff members were only working at Mariann Home, instead of working at several facilities, which might increase the risk for virus transmission.
He credits his SARS experience and training in helping to protect the residents and staff from COVID-19.
However, the home faced its biggest challenge in January 2022, amid the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Boreland told CTV News Toronto 20 staff members tested positive after gatherings during the holidays, but through daily testing and isolation protocols the home was able to keep the virus from spreading to residents.
"At that time, we changed our testing policy and each staff member was tested on a daily basis prior to going to work," said Boreland. "We continued to isolate for staff ten days, we didn't follow with the advice of the province, which was five days. I'm glad we did because we had staff who tested positive after five days."
Staff receive a rapid test before the start of every shift and must wait for their results before reporting to their unit. The home has also made weekly PCR tests mandatory.
"I felt safe because he provided us with the equipment and the knowledge," said employee Jeanine Dukelow.
Even with the Ontario government recently easing restrictions for visitors and lifting vaccine mandates for long-term care staff, Boreland is keeping several measures in place, including a vaccine mandate for all staff.
Anyone visiting a family member must schedule a visit in advance in order to limit the number of people inside the home at once, Boreland said.
After day trips, residents are isolated upon return and undergo rapid and PCR testing for a week.
"It's obvious COVID is still out there because I'm still getting positive tests, that's why we need to be extremely careful," said Boreland.
"If there was any concern they kept mom and the residents isolated and everything possible to keep them safe and it worked," said Demiglio. "Being extra safe is always better than letting go.”
Boreland credits his staff and families for successfully keeping Mariann Home residents COVID-19 free.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
President Joe Biden calls Japan and India 'xenophobic' nations that do not welcome immigrants
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.
Universities grapple with the complicated politics of campus encampments
Montreal police are facing pressure to move in and dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill University campus on Thursday, as a growing number of universities across this country grapple with the tough decision of how to handle the protests.