The North Bay Regional Health Centre has worked quickly as they will be deploying a new outreach team to perform COVID-19 tests on all staff and residents at long term care and retirement homes in the area.
Beginning at Casselholme this morning, the outreach team which is made up of physicians, nurse practitioners, community paramedics, respiratory therapists and lab technicians, will begin performing swabs on all 328 staff and 222 patients at the local facility.
See related: COVID-19 testing imminent for all staff and residents of local long term care and retirement homes
Dr. Ian Cowan, Medical Director of the COVID-19 Assessment Centre says this work is part of the provincial plan for enhanced testing in long-term care.
“Much like how our Assessment Centre has been a true community effort, so is this outreach team,” Dr. Cowan said via social media.
“We have been able to quickly pull together a team with the necessary expertise to have eight people safely swabbing the residents and staff working in our community’s long-term care and retirement homes.”
The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit reports there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents of local retirement homes or long-term care homes.
