Only four days after a COVID-19 outbreak at Fairhaven long-term care home in Peterborough was declared over, an employee has tested positive for the disease and another outbreak has been declared.
“Peterborough Public Health has informed Fairhaven that a person, who is employed by our home, has tested positive for COVID-19,” Fairhaven executive director Lionel Towns writes in an email on Tuesday (December 15).
Towns says the employee was not infected at Fairhaven and has not worked in the building for the past five days. However, as a result of the positive test, an outbreak has been declared for the Riverside 3 (R3) home area only.
Towns stresses that there are no confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 among residents at the municipally run home located at 881 Dutton Road.
“Our home has a strict staff/resident cohorting policy which means that the person who tested positive only worked on R3,” Towns writes. “Tomorrow morning, all staff and residents on this home area will be swabbed.”
While the outbreak is in effect, all visits to Fairhaven will be postponed.
“There is a high rate of community transmission in the areas surrounding Peterborough and we need to take everyone precaution possible to ensure that the virus does not spread, or is not introduced, to other areas of our home,” Towns writes. “It is too early to determine a projected end date for the outbreak; we will keep everyone informed as we receive more information.”
