16 die in Ont. Nursing home due to delay in separation of sick from healthy patients

#Ontario; #PinecrestNursingHome; #Bobcaygeon, #SpaceConstraints; #16 deaths

Toronto, Apr 7 (Canadian-Media): Delay of separation of healthy patients from the the sick in Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon, Ontario due to space constraints had resulted in COVID-19 pandemic killing 16,  more than a third of the residents, media reports said.

Pinecrest Nursing Home. Image credit: Facebook page

The nursing home which housed 65 residents declared a respiratory outbreak only after 2 weeks that private rooms became available bu till then 16 residents had already died, said Sarah Gardiner, who had worked at the Pinecrest Nursing Home for 12 years.

"That's the reason why we actually have the space now. Because we've lost ... residents," said Gardiner. "But before, there really was not the space to do that. It would have been an impossibility, I think."

Staff and members of residents' families were notified on Apr 3 by the Pinecrest Nursing Home administrator Mary Carr that the facility had implemented changes including separating all the sick residents from the healthy patients in two different sections of the nursing home to mitigate any potential spread of the virus.

As of yesterday, 26 residents had died including one volunteer whose husband is a resident in the nursing home.