Some employees at Atholville long-term care home with COVID-19 outbreak live in Quebec

Some employees at the long-term care facility in Atholville where four Alzheimer's patients and a night worker have tested positive for COVID-19 live across the border in Quebec, says the facility's owner.

But Dr. Guy Tremblay, the president and CEO of the Quebec-based Lokia Group, said he doesn't believe any employees are still travelling between provinces.

"I don't think so," he said during a telephone interview from Quebec on Monday. 

And while some of the Manoir de la Vallée's personal care attendants have on occasion worked at the Lokia Group's other two facilities in the area — Sugarloaf Manor in Campbellton and Sunrise Manor in Dalhousie — none did in the days leading up to the outbreak and none are now, he said.

There are 12 active cases of COVID-19 in the Campbellton region, all linked to a family doctor who travelled to Quebec and didn't self-isolate for the mandatory 14 days when he returned.

No new cases were confirmed on Monday, but the number of people at the Campbellton Regional Hospital increased to four, up from three, including one patient in intensive care.

The affected Manoir de la Vallée residents include three people in their 80s and one in their 70s from the 18-bed Alzheimer's unit.

Tremblay said the COVID-positive personal care attendant had social contact with the infected doctor on May 20.

She worked three night shifts — May 22, 23 and 24 with no symptoms — before testing positive for the respiratory disease on May 29, and is now self-isolating at home, he said.

All of the residents and staff have since been tested, but will be closely monitored for the next two weeks and retested if any symptoms develop. 

The roughly 90 residents and 40 employees at the Campbellton and Dalhousie facilities will be tested in the coming days, along with those of all long-term care facilities in the region, also known as Zone 5, Public Health officials have said.

In the meantime, Tremblay, who is a surgeon, said the Manoir staff and health officials are doing everything possible to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Unit isolated

The infected Alzheimer unit has its own entrance and there is no contact between it and the attached independent living apartments, he said.

And a team of extramural staff is running the special-care side after 10 of the 29 regular workers left amid fears of the outbreak.

"As soon as we knew that COVID will be there, many staff are just scared about that and they just advised us that they [would] not be on the next shift on the floor," said Tremblay.

With a good care plan, he is optimistic the facility will pull through the outbreak "without much problem," noting some people can be COVID-positive without being sick, even the elderly.

"But at the same time you shouldn't close your eyes because you never know what's going [to happen] the next day, or the next hours because that bad virus can create a very bad situation."