A staff member at a Richmond long-term care facility – previously understood to have breached public health orders by visiting an elderly relative while displaying COVID-19 symptoms – took no part in the aforementioned visit.
That’s the conclusion of a Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) investigation into allegations that the staffer at Minoru Residence, which VCH runs, had crossed health regions to visit the relative on Christmas Day, along with their spouse.
The staff member has also clarified that neither they nor any of their family members were symptomatic at the time of the visit, as the Richmond News had stated in earlier reports.
The Richmond News apologizes for the misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, Minoru Residence, near Minoru Boulevard and Westminster Highway, is currently dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak across the entire facility.
Last week, VCH initially cited privacy reasons when contacted by the Richmond News for comment.
However, on Sunday, a spokesperson for VCH said the allegation has been “looked into” and was found to be baseless.
The statement continued: “Due to patient confidentiality, we cannot release details related to specific cases or individuals.
“Public Health conducts thorough contact tracing for each individual diagnosed with COVID-19 and will follow up with all individuals who are deemed close contacts of the positive staff member.
“Patient and staff safety is our number one priority. Minoru Residence continues to follow all guidance from Public Health and infection prevention and control in order to protect the safety of residents and staff and stop the transmission of COVID-19.”
VCH confirmed to the News that the outbreak at Minoru Residence was expanded to include the entire facility on Dec. 31, after “additional cases were identified.”
An outbreak was first declared at Minoru in the 1 East unit, where restrictions to contain the spread of the virus were put in place on Dec. 21.
