'A scary thought': Confirmed COVID-19 case at Northwood causes concern
Long-term care advocates and family members of residents of Northwood in Halifax are expressing concern after a positive case was confirmed at the facility over the weekend.
Greg Sheaves says he wasn’t happy to hear of the positive case at Northwood, where his 85-year-old mother lives.
“Nobody called or notified me, and they said it wasn’t on that floor,” says Sheaves. “Without mandated vaccine, it’s a scary thought.”
Officials at Northwood confirmed Sunday that a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 at the long-term care home that was the epicentre of the virus during the first wave of the pandemic.
Northwood CEO Janet Simm says the positive test was identified during the facility’s routine screening, and contact tracing has been completed.
Simm said she was not able to confirm whether the staff member was fully vaccinated due to privacy reasons, but says more than 88 per cent of the facility’s staff are vaccinated.
Nova Scotia’s Minister of Seniors and Long-Term Care says as of now, workers at long-term care facilities don’t have to report their status, and neither do visitors, but both could change.
“We are working with a team on a vaccination policy for health care staff in the province of Nova Scotia, and that will be coming out soon,” said Barbara Adams.
One long-term care expert says she would like to see as many workers vaccinated as possible.
“Even if there is a very slight risk of getting the virus, it still reduces the extent of the virus,” says Janice Keefe, chair of the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University.
Keefe says making sure every worker who can be vaccinated gets both shots is important to keep everyone in long-term care facilities safe and avoid any more lockdowns.
“There were so many people important to resident who were shut out from those facilities, and I just don’t ever want that to happen again,” says Keefe, who also serves as the Director of the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging.
A total of 53 Northwood residents died from the virus last spring, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nova Scotia reported 55 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, 34 of them in the Central zone, leading to a long list of potential exposure locations, including a number of Halifax-area bars and restaurants.
But not everyone is a fan of the continued exposure notices.
“It’s more about the negative image that it could portray of a restaurant that has done nothing wrong, and it’s just unnecessary when we have contact tracing in place,” says Luc Erjavec, Restaurant Canada’s Vice President Atlantic.
Some Halifax establishments say they are already requiring proof of vaccination to dine indoors, two weeks before it becomes mandatory on Oct. 4.
“We are a family restaurant with lots of elderly, and children under the age of 12, so we just want to make sure people feel safe coming here,” says Rose MacDonald, operations manager at the Chicken Burger in Bedford.
As of Monday, Nova Scotia has 129 active cases of COVID-19.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, Reuters sources say
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Improve balance and build core strength with this exercise
When it comes to cardiovascular fitness, you may tend to focus on activities that move you forward, such as walking, running and cycling.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.