COVID outbreak declared at Amica care home in North Vancouver

A second long-term care home on the North Shore has been hit with a COVID-19 outbreak.

Vancouver Coastal Health has declared a COVID outbreak at Amica’s Edgemont Village seniors home in North Vancouver, after one resident and two staff members tested positive for the virus.

The outbreak is in the long-term care unit on the first floor of the facility.

Group activities in the long-term care unit have been halted and visits have been put on hold, except for essential care visits or compassionate visits for residents at the end of their lives.

Residents and staff are being monitored, according to Vancouver Coastal Health, and anyone potentially exposed is being tested.

The unit has also been closed to new admissions and transfers.

The outbreak does not affect those living in the memory care unit or the independent living suites at the private care facility.

The outbreak is the second to hit a seniors home on the North Shore in as many weeks.

A week ago, on Oct. 16, an outbreak was declared at a different private facility run by Amica – the 99-bed Amica Lions Gate in West Vancouver.

Earlier this week, the number of infections there had grown to 11 people testing positive for the virus, including six residents and five staff members.

The outbreaks are the first to be declared in North Shore care homes since the “fourth wave” of the pandemic began this fall.

During the first wave of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, an outbreak at the same Amica facility in Edgemont led to the deaths of three residents, along with infections of six other residents plus 11 staff members.

Recent outbreaks in a number of other care homes in the province have sparked concerns about why elderly vaccinated residents have been contracting the virus and how that virus is being introduced to care homes. As of Friday, there were outbreaks declared at 19 long-term care and assisted living facilities.

This month, it became mandatory for all staff at long-term care and assisted living homes to be vaccinated. As of the date that came into effect on Oct. 12, between 98 and 99 per cent of staff in Vancouver Coastal Health had received at least one dose of vaccine, according to Health Minister Adrian Dix.

The province has also recently started offering third booster shots of the vaccine to residents of long-term care homes.