Hamilton long-term care home has COVID-19 outbreak

A facility-wide COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at a long-term care home in west-end Hamilton.

St. Joseph’s Villa, which is located in the village of Dundas, announced Monday that an outbreak has spread throughout the facility. The original four cases were among staff of the home’s hair salon, but on Monday, Hamilton Public Health Services director of operations Michelle Baird said that there are more cases. The degree to which the Delta variant is involved is unknown.

“We don’t have information with respect to what particular variant might be in play,” Baird said during the City of Hamilton’s now-biweekly COVID-19 media briefing. “It could take upwards of two weeks to get that confirmation (from Public Health Ontario).”

Baird, citing privacy concerns, would not confirm if anyone who has been infected during the outbreak was unvaccinated.

During the outbreak, St. Joseph’s Villa is prohibiting “non-essential visiting… with the exception for residents who are very ill or requiring end of life care.”

During the same briefing, Baird said that more than 95 per cent of COVID-19 cases in Hamilton since December 2020 have occurred in people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19e. People who have had one dose have account for 4.1 per cent of cases in that span, and 0.3 per cent have been ‘breakthrough cases’ in people who have completed the vaccine series.

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Getting vaccinated will not prevent a person from contracting COVID-19, but is seen as 94 to 95 per cent effective at preventing it. It also reduces the chances of becoming severely ill or hospitalized by the virus.

At last update, Hamilton has 103 active cases, including six new ones reported on Monday. The rolling seven-day average has held firm at 12 cases per day.

(Secondary photo courtesy of the City of Hamilton.)