COVID-19 outbreak at St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre

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By Nick Seebruch
COVID-19 outbreak at St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre
St. Joseph's Community Care Centre. Photo from Google Maps.

CORNWALL, Ontario – One staff member at St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre (SJCCC) has tested positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Chief Medical Officer of Health of the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) said that the test was done as a part of the EOHU’s testing of all long term care facilities in the region.

Dr. Roumeliotis explained that the results of the test came back on Sunday, May 10, and he explained that the staff member wore Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during working hours.

“No residents tested positive at that institution, it was just one staff,” he said. “Every thing seems to be under control. PPE is in place. Infection controls are in place.”

This is the fifteenth positive COVID-19 case discovered in Cornwall, the other 14 are all listed as “resolved” by the EOHU.

For the whole region, there have been 132 positive cases of COVID-19, with 21 in SD&G and 96 in Prescott-Russell, with 15 resolved in SD&G and 42 in Prescott-Russell.

Two individuals are hospitalized in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) due to COVID-19 and eight individuals in the EOHU region have passed away from the virus. All eight fatalities were residents of a long term care facility in Plantagenet, Prescott-Russell.

The outbreak at the SJCCC is the third COVID-19 outbreak in the EOHU region, the first being at the Pinecrest Nursing home, which is as stated, in Plantagenet, and the other at Woodland Villa in Long Sault.

“We are still not out of the woods. We are still in a critical phase, but in terms of the community it is getting better,” said Dr. Roumeliotis of the COVID-19 numbers in the region.

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