Prince George care home resident tests positive for COVID-19 day before scheduled vaccination

Lisa Spetch experienced the full gamut of emotions over the holidays, ranging from relief and joy at the news her mother would be getting a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, to fear and sadness just a few hours later. 

Spetch's 93-year-old mother, Olga Wall, lives at the Jubilee Lodge long-term care home in Prince George, B.C., where a coronavirus outbreak was declared in mid-December. 

On Dec. 22, just over a week after the outbreak was declared, Spetch got a phone call at around noon informing her that her mother was scheduled to receive Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine the next day. 

"We were jubilant. It was going to be a wonderful Christmas. She beat the odds of getting COVID," Spetch told Carolina de Ryk, host of CBC's Daybreak North. 

But just before midnight the same day, Spetch received another surprising call from Jubilee Lodge — her mother had tested positive for the virus.

Wall was transferred to a segregated area in the care home, where she stayed with more than 40 other residents who had tested positive for COVID-19. Since mid-December, a dozen residents of Jubilee Lodge have died of COVID-19. 

"I slept with my phone. I had made sure it was charged all the time, so a lot of emotions up and down," Spetch said of the days following her mother's diagnosis, as she waited for calls from Jubilee Lodge about her condition.

Much to Spetch's relief, there were no calls to inform her that her mother's health had deteriorated. 

Her mother did not receive the vaccine dose, but she is doing well, says her daughter, who has made several FaceTime calls to her mother. 

"It was good to see her sitting up in bed and she's feeding herself. She's not any more confused than normal," Spetch said about her mother, who has dementia. 

Spetch says the care home doctors don't plan to vaccinate her mother because she will develop coronavirus antibodies.

On Monday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said COVID-19 vaccines won't benefit people who have contracted the virus.

Spetch says thanks to dementia, Wall — who is fluent in four languages and worked as an interpreter during the Second World War — isn't aware there have been no family visits since she tested positive. 

"Hopefully they [Jubilee Lodge] will be able to lift the lockdown soon, and I can go see her again," Spetch said.

Jubilee Lodge is currently open only to essential visits, which include seeing loved ones who are dying. 

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