Eden Gardens long term care home is one of two current COVID-19 outbreaks in Nanaimo, with one staff member and one resident having tested positive. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

CARE HOME CONCERNS

‘The protection we’re seeing is very robust:’ vaccinations need time to fully protect Nanaimo care homes

Feb 17, 2021 | 11:52 AM

NANAIMO — Outbreaks of COVID-19 at two local, long-term care homes is raising questions about the province’s vaccine rollout plan.

Island Health completed the first round of vaccination at all care facilities in its jurisdiction by late January, however new cases were detected at Eden Gardens and Wexford Creek as recently as Sunday, Feb. 14.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said residents and staff require time to build the necessary defence against COVID-19 after receiving the first dose of vaccine.

“There is a period of time before your body develops enough antibodies to give you protection and that’s somewhere around 14 to 21 days. We have not yet passed that critical period of time for everybody who’s been immunized,” she said during her Feb. 16 briefing.

As of Wednesday, Feb. 17, three people at the two sites had tested positive, far less than other outbreaks in Nanaimo’s healthcare system.

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From late December 2020 to early February, Chartwell Malaspina dealt with an outbreak where seven residents and two staff members tested positive. Two residents passed away as a result of the virus.

Two outbreaks at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in November 2020 and January saw multiple people test positive, but no further transmission once the affected areas of the hospital were isolated.

Dr. Henry said ground was made immediately in curbing transmission of the virus inside the close quarters of a care home or assisted living facility.

“What we’re not seeing is the rapidly spreading outbreaks that we saw earlier on in November and into December, prior to immunization. The protection we’re seeing is very robust after people have that opportunity to develop the response.”

Testing continues at both Nanaimo facilities, with the province deploying PCR tests to better identify new cases.

“When we have an outbreak, when we know there’s a higher probability of having the virus, we do systematic testing on a repeated basis with the PCR testing with a rapid turnaround time,” Dr. Henry said.

The province is due to provide facility-specific data on immunization rates later in the week, which will outline what percentage of residents and staff elected to receive vaccine.

Both Dr. Henry and health minister Adrian Dix said the uptake was very high.

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