COVID-19 Resident & Family Update

February 1, 2021

Resident & Family Stakeholder Update

Greetings from the teams at West Perth Village. We are pleased to provide these important Covid-19 pandemic updates for your consideration. Huron Perth Public Health indicates that there are currently 74 active cases with outbreaks at 3 area LTC homes. Both of our homes remain Covid free.

Late last week we received new directives from the Ministry of Health outlining the use of Rapid Antigen Testing for all individuals entering our homes. Our senior leadership team has begun discussions on how best to formulate a plan to roll out the Panbio test, that works for both our staff and visitors once restrictions have been eased.

Huron Perth Public Health also confirmed that there are now production issues with both Pfizer and Moderna and new shipments of vaccines are behind schedule and shipments will be less than originally promised. Public Health and the Ministry have indicated that the roll-out of second vaccine shots for residents of our homes will be about the middle of February. Vaccinations for all other stakeholders including staff will be at least 42 days from the date of first dose. We do not have a timeline for the arrival of further doses but we will let you know when the time comes.

These are difficult times for everyone and our teams recognize how vital family connections are for the health and wellbeing of our residents. We know and understand the enormous hardship that our ‘No Visitors’ policy has caused for families. However, we continue to witness the devastating impact that Covid-19 is having on Long Term Care homes across Ontario and indeed in our communities. As such, we are resolute in our commitment to our resident’s safety and we are not prepared to take the risk of sacrificing their lives so that people can visit in person.

Once we have developed a reasonable wall of protection, we will be fully prepared to ease up restrictions. We forsee that happening within the next few weeks. We thank all of our families for the outpouring of positive support for these difficult measures. Again, once we have more information about vaccination roll-out dates we will follow up with you. If you have questions regarding our operations or this information please feel free to give us a call or send us an email.

Respectfully,

Jeff Renaud, Administrator