Staff, residents at Windsor seniors' home with major COVID-19 outbreak to get vaccine Sunday

A Windsor long-term care home that has experienced the region's worst COVID-19 outbreak will be vaccinated by Sunday evening. 

The Village at St. Clair, which has been in outbreak for a month, will receive vaccinations for staff and residents this weekend, according to Bill Marra, VP of external affairs at Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare. 

As of Thursday evening, Marra said 145 residents have tested positive, with 30 active and 36 deaths. The home also had 107 staff members test positive, 46 of whom are still active. 

Though he didn't have an exact number, Marra said many of the residents and staff have opted to get the vaccine. 

Staff from Hotel Dieu, who entered the home on Dec. 24, are still assisting St. Clair as it continues to struggle with the outbreak. Marra said he anticipates that by the end of next week, the hospital will no longer be in the home. 

When the hospital first took control of key operations at St. Clair, it said it would provide support with the following: 

• Leadership.
• Infection prevention and control education.
• Enhanced oversight related to communications. 
• Resident and family relations. 
• Reporting. 
• Physician oversight. 

Now, Marra said those areas have been improved upon.

He added that they are looking to transition out of the home because they are deploying staff to other seniors' homes that are in outbreak. 

On Friday, Hotel Dieu staff were sent to Augustine Villas retirement home in Kingsville. The home, according to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's website, has 14 resident cases and five staff cases. 

But, Marra said the plan to leave The Village is still tentative as it stabilizes itself and gets more staff back. 

Twenty staff members returned to work this week after having recovered, according to a news release from the home. 

Before the end of January, Marra said 30 more staff members are expected to be back. 

"As they start to recover they're making their way back to work and that's improving as well," he said. 

Staffing was a big concern when the home first went into outbreak as many were off sick.

Due to the number of deaths that have occurred, the home has also reduced its resident units from eight to seven. This means that some residents will be temporarily moved to a different unit, which Marra says will help staff better monitor the situation. 

Another area of concern was its communication with family members of residents. But now, Marra said they are in regular communication with the community and send families email updates every day. 

Village of Aspen Lake to also get vaccines

Village of Aspen Lake, which is run by Schlegel Villages that operates The Village at St. Clair, will also be vaccinated this weekend. Staff and residents will receive the shot on Saturday.

Aspen Lake is also in a COVID-19 outbreak, with 34 residents and 16 staff having tested positive since Nov. 30.