Employee at Brandon personal care home tests positive for COVID-19

A health-care worker at the Rideau Park Personal Care Home in Brandon has tested positive for COVID-19.

The worker wore personal protective equipment while at the home, Prairie Mountain Health CEO Penny Gilson said.

The person is now self-isolating, Gilson said. Close contacts have been identified and the information has been shared with families who have loved ones in the personal care home as well as Rideau Park staff, she said via email. 

No other cases so far have been linked to this case. 

However, out of an abundance of caution, an outbreak has been declared at the Rideau Park personal care home, Gilson said.

Restrictions have been placed on staff and visitors as a result.

This is the second outbreak of COVID-19 at a personal care home in Manitoba in less than a month, after an outbreak was declared at the Bethesda Place care home in Steinbach on Aug. 17. 

As of Wednesday, there were eight cases linked to the Bethesda Place outbreak. Two residents of the care home have died from COVID-19, both women in their 90s. Public health officials announced the second death Thursday morning. 

There were 407 active cases in Manitoba on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of cases identified in the province since the pandemic began to 1,064. 

Manitoba's five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate was three per cent, health officials said Thursday.