COVID-19 Update

On Friday, Feb. 19, Scarborough Health Network (SHN) returned to our housing to provide another on-site free testing for residents, tenants, and staff.

Testing is important to preventing spread of the virus. All residents and tenants, regardless of whether they are showing symptoms of COVID-19, were encouraged to be tested.

Thanks to SHN, 228 people, including five staff members, received a COVID-19 test on Friday. We will share results with tenants and residents as they become available.

Thank you to SHN for the ongoing community support they have provided.

As of Feb. 10, 2021, we are not aware of any new cases of COVID-19 in our housing.

Our staff continue to provide up-to-date information and Public Health safety tips to residents, tenants, and staff. We also continue to implement rigorous cleaning of the building, including disinfection of high-touch surfaces in common spaces four times a day.

We are grateful for wonderful community partners that have provided support to help protect our seniors. Scarborough Health Network supported us by sending a team of infection prevention and control specialists to tour our building and offer suggestions on where we can enhance our practices. Their suggestions, such as adding more hand sanitizer stations in common areas, are being implemented. Thank you to TAIBU Community Health Centre for providing sanitizer stations to help make this possible.

Thanks to donations of masks from Councillor Nick Mantas and individual size hand sanitizers from MPP Aris Babikian, we were able to distribute these items to the 400+ seniors we house.

As of today, we know of 13 cases of COVID-19 in our buildings. As previously noted, 8 people tested positive for COVID-19 during the on-site testing on Jan 25 by Scarborough Health Network (SHN). This is in addition to the four positive cases already known in Centre building and one new case who tested positive after Jan 25.

Toronto Public Health has informed us they are contacting all positive cases from the Jan 25th testing.

Initially, we understood that all results from this testing will be available online. However, we have since learned that results will not be available online. SHN has provided a letter with individual test results in a sealed enveloped that will be delivered to each person on February 2, 2021.

If someone in our building tests positive for COVID-19, let us know so that we can offer you support and take steps to protect our entire community. We respect your privacy. Please see this report from Ontario Public Health for more information on how to self-isolate safely.

On Jan. 25, Scarborough Health Network (SHN) conducted on-site testing for residents, tenants, and staff. We have been informed that 279 tests were processed, of which 8 are positive. A physician from SHN will directly contact those people who test positive. This means we now know of 12 positive cases in our buildings.

We do not know the identities of tenants and residents who test positive unless they inform us. We have reached out to all tenants and residents to encourage them to let us know if they test positive so that we can support them and take further measures to protect our entire community of seniors.

On Jan. 27, Scarborough Health Network helped our community by sending a team to tour our buildings and help us identify areas where we could add further measures for infection prevention and control. We are working closely with them and will share their findings once the final report becomes available. Currently, in both of our buildings and on all floors, we have increased the frequency of cleaning and are using commercial grade solutions that are specific for COVID-19.

We are also working with Toronto Public Health in their efforts to determine how the virus has spread in our community and whether our status of cases is, indeed, considered an outbreak. Regardless, our staff continue to treat this like an outbreak so that we take all steps possible to protect our community.

To date, we have heard from Scarborough Health Network that 283 people including tenants, residents and staff were tested on-site on Jan. 25. Some early results are already back and of those, five people have tested positive. Further results will be shared once they are available.

Due to privacy, we do not know who the individuals are who have tested positive. However, a physician from SHN will be contacting those people if they have not already. If your loved one tests positive for COVID-19, we encourage you to please contact your family physician for further direction.

If you live in our building and test positive for COVID-19, let us know!

We want to know if you have COVID-19 so that we can help. Knowing that a person has COVID-19 in our buildings also helps us to take further action to keep our entire community of seniors safe. We can support you with information on how to isolate safely or connect with healthcare if needed, provide counselling and support, and help you get healthy food and medications delivered so that they don’t have to go out. When we know a person in our building has COVID-19, we can also take steps to prevent further infection and protect our neighbours.

By sharing a positive result, you could be saving another person’s life.

We value privacy. We do not need to share your name with everyone in the building. But when our staff know, it helps us to take the right steps to help. Please know there is no shame in sharing your name if you have COVID-19. When you share your name with others, it helps everyone determine whether they have had contact so that they can take steps to isolate and protect others, too.

On Monday January 25, 2021, in partnership with the Scarborough Health Network (SHN), COVID-19 testing occurred at our building/residences.  We are thankful to SHN for organizing the testing so quickly and giving the opportunity to more than 230 people to be tested.

Another person has come forward to let us know they had COVID-19 early in January. This person also lives on the sixth floor of Centre building. Their case is now resolved.

That means there have been four known cases of COVID-19 in the building, all on the sixth floor. As of Jan. 25th, we do not know of anyone with an active case of COVID-19 who is currently in the building.

Four staff persons who had contact with those cases have all now tested negative but will continue to isolate as a precaution.

On Monday January 25, 2021, in partnership with the Scarborough Health Network (SHN), we will be conducting COVID-19 testing at our building/residences. Testing will be available only for residents, tenants, and staff. Testing is important to preventing spread of the virus because even people who are asymptomatic can spread COVID-19.

There have been 3 reported cases among tenants of COVID-19 at St. Paul's L'Amoreaux. No other cases are known at this time.

We are grateful to SHN for bringing a dedicated Pop-Up COVID-19 Assessment Centre to our buildings so that residents, tenants, and staff can choose to be tested – without having to leave the property.

As of Jan. 22, there are three known cases of COVID-19 among tenants in our building, St. Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre. Two of these cases remain active.

Three staff persons providing essential care services are known to have had contact with one of those cases. These staff persons have tested negative for COVID-19, but as a precaution, they remain in isolation.

One other staff person who had contact with a known case is in isolation and awaiting test results.

At this time, there is no impact or changes to essential services delivered in the buildings, or by SPLC in the community.

The health and safety of our community remains our highest priority.

Our teams worked quickly to halt the spread of the virus through our continued rigorous infection prevention and control practices.

Upon learning of a case of COVID-19 among our tenants, our teams took immediate action to:

• Immediately disinfect common areas in our building, including the floor where the known cases are.
• Start contact tracing. Any person known to have contact with those who tested positive has already been contacted. Our efforts continue to ensure we identify as many people as possible who may have had contact with these known cases.
• Communicate as quickly as possible to notify tenants, residents, families, and community stakeholders of positive cases in our building.
• Provide education and offer support to tenants and residents who are feeling unwell, are not sure if they need to be tested, or who have tested positive for COVID-19.
• Communicate to all members of our community of the urgency to follow Public Health guidelines to stay home as much as possible during the lockdown.
• Deploy staff to provide support to clients/tenants and assistance with transportation for testing, if needed.
• Request that all staff entering any unit at one of our buildings wear full personal protective equipment (PPE) including mask, gown, eye protection, and gloves.
• Follow Public Health guidance.

Throughout the pandemic, our teams have worked hard to keep up to date on pandemic prevention to support the safety of our community. Here is a summary of ongoing measures that we have taken to help keep our community safe:

• Provide pandemic updates and relevant information to residents and tenants including Public Health safety tips.
• Throughout the pandemic, our cleaners have increased the frequency of disinfection of surfaces in common areas in the building. We regularly disinfect common surfaces, like door handles, elevator buttons, and washrooms.
• Post building signage and request that only essential visitors enter our buildings during lockdown.
• Expect anyone entering our buildings to self-screen for symptoms.
• Provide opportunities to help seniors get healthy food and medications delivered.
• Provide virtual programs to help seniors stay connected.

For more information about food options and available programs, please contact 416-493-3333