Family, SHA react to Extendicare COVID-19 outbreak

Christmas will be looking very different this year — especially for people with a loved one fighting COVID-19.

Anna Mamais’ grandfather tested positive for the virus nearly two weeks ago. He’s one of more than 140 residents from the Parkside Extendicare home in Regina who have tested positive.

As of Wednesday, 141 residents and 58 staff at the care home had tested positive for COVID. On Wednesday morning, another resident died, bringing the total to 12. An additional 30 staff members are self-isolating.

Mamais says it’s easy to think someone in your family won’t get sick until it happens.

“It felt weird finding out he got sick. Obviously people have been getting the virus, but it makes you think, ‘What are the odds?’ ” she said.

“I just tried to stay positive because his symptoms weren’t showing at the time, so when I heard it initially, I wasn’t overall too worried because I was just trying to stay on the positive side of things.

“But also at the same time it feels very scary.”

For Mamais, it didn’t take long to see how fast someone’s symptoms can change.

“At first, he had zero symptoms at all, but from then to now, there were roughly three days I believe that he didn’t even open up his eyes,” she said. “He has been exhausted and sleeping a lot.

“It has definitely been tough. It’s scary to see that he was doing pretty well before seeing things take a turn.”

For people with a family member fighting COVID, one of the toughest things can be not being with them in person as they rely on video chats to provide some level of comfort.

“We have used FaceTime with him a few times with help from the nurses but he wasn’t very responsive in general,” Mamais said. “I don’t think he could hear us very well because it was just through the phone.

“It has been hard to not see him face to face in around two months since it got cold out.”

Mamais does not blame the care home, saying that its workers are doing as much as they can to prevent further spread.

“This entire situation is so hard to get under control, just like it is for everyone else,” Mamais said. “All we can do is take the precautions necessary to limit and prevent the spread.

“You never know what can happen. Everything happened at Extendicare so quickly.”

SHA enters co-management agreement with Extendicare

The Saskatchewan Health Authority has stepped in to help control the outbreak at Parkside Extendicare.

In addition to those fighting the virus in the care, the SHA also moved 25 residents who had tested negative to Pioneer Village. But since then, 19 of the 25 have tested positive for the virus.

In another ward at Pioneer Village, five residents have tested positive and so have four staff members.

At Parkside, the SHA has entered a co-management agreement at the request of Extendicare. The arrangement will allow the SHA to provide more support there.

The SHA is also doing safety reviews at all Extendicare facilities in Saskatchewan.

“Any outbreak can be prevented, but it’s a truly difficult virus and it’s more contagious than our influenza viruses and other common viruses. Plus the asymptomatic spread is really what’s contributing to how it stealthily enters into these facilities despite our best efforts,” said Dr. Kathy Malejczyk, who works with the SHA in infection prevention and control.

Dr. Rashaad Hansia, the SHA physician executive lead for integrated urban health, wouldn’t comment on how different the Extendicare COVID policies were compared to SHA ones, only saying: “I won’t say better or worse or up to speed or not.”

“We’re looking at everything,” Hansia said. “I think we want to leave no stoned unturned in trying to support the facility and those residents and those families.

“I think every policy is being looked at and needs to be looked at because we need to find where there are opportunities to be able to improve and to learn from what we know about COVID now that we didn’t know days and months before.”

One of the roles the agreement gives the SHA is the ability to bring in human resources to help support residents at the home.

“I’m happy to report that we’ve had much more of a stable situation in terms of supporting staffing and the response to meet core needs,” said Debbie Sinnet, the executive director of continuing care in Regina.

Regina Fire and Protective Services has also been helping with the staffing issue, providing four members a day for the last week.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray