Alberta's former top doctor warns against lifting COVID-19 measures in continuing care homes

Alberta's former chief medical officer of health is warning against further scaling back COVID-19 public health measures at continuing care homes as an Edmonton facility deals with a delta variant outbreak that has led to the death of one resident.

The province plans to largely end isolation and masking requirements, contact tracing and asymptomatic testing on Aug. 16 but officials have said little on how those changes could impact supportive living facilities.

During an announcement on July 28, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said public health would still identify and manage outbreaks in high risk locations like continuing care facilities.

While masks and quarantining may still be required, close contacts will no longer be traced, Hinshaw said.

Alberta Health told CBC News last week that a final decision for protocols at long-term care homes will be made by Aug. 16.

Dr. James Talbot, former chief medical officer of health for Alberta and co-chair of the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association, said relaxing the rules in congregant living facilities will cost lives.

"I think we run a significantly increased risk of seeing outbreaks in congregate living settings and mortality that is higher than normal but not as high as the first and second wave in those settings," Talbot said in an interview.

He said health authorities cannot let their guard down at facilities where large numbers of people live together and many residents have underlying medical conditions or compromised immune systems. 

Even immunized residents may still be vulnerable, Talbot said.

"If you end up with an infection in a setting like that, it can move pretty quickly and what we found with COVID is that it kills a significant number of people," he said.

Outbreak at Edmonton facility

On the same day Hinshaw announced the changes, Sandi Johnson — a registered nurse working in the field of public health for more than 35 years — learned of an outbreak at Edmonton's Lewis Estates Retirement Residence when she went to visit her 91-year-old mother-in-law.

Alberta Health has confirmed five people at the facility have been infected by the highly-contagious delta variant — four residents and one staff member. One resident has died and another resident is in hospital. A third case has recovered.

Johnson fears outbreaks at continuing and acute care facilities will be far worse if contact tracing and isolation are no longer required.

"The numbers are going to be huge. What are the numbers? How are we going to know what to do?"

Lewis Estates Retirement Residence did not respond to repeated requests for comment from CBC News.

Rules must be clear

Talbot said it's important to outline rules around visitors, volunteers, staff, and how to protect residents, for instance by forbidding anyone in the facility who is symptomatic and continuing to require isolation of anyone who tests positive.

"My advice would be that the government should make as clear as possible in a very kind of concise language exactly what they expect from the operators," he said.

He said new evidence shows people can be infected with a single dose of vaccine and possibly even with two doses.

"It's a finding that came after the government made their announcement," Talbot said.

"So I think it's only prudent for them to hit pause and say we're going to review this stuff and make sure that the guidelines that we have in place are going to be sufficient to protect people."