Death toll at Orléans care home battling COVID-19 rises to 29

Another 45 residents of Madonna Care Community in isolation after testing positive

Image | Madonna Care Community Long-Term Care Orléans

Caption: The Madonna Care Community, a long-term care home in Orléans, is battling an outbreak of COVID-19 that has killed 29 residents and infected 45 more. (Jacques Corriveau/CBC)

Twenty-nine residents of Madonna Care Community in Orléans have now died of COVID-19, says the operator of the long-term care home.
In a Sunday statement to CBC News, Sienna Senior Living said another 45 residents have tested positive for the respiratory disease and are currently in isolation.
"We are sadly grieving the loss of the 29 residents who have succumbed to the virus since the outbreak began and extend our deepest condolences to these families for their loss," the statement said.
The number of deaths at the facility is almost double the 15 reported by Ottawa Public Health on Apr. 29, the last day for which data is available.
There are currently 18 outbreaks at long-term care and retirement homes in Ottawa.

Hospital staff helping fight outbreak

Madonna Care Home is one of several long-term care facilities in Ontario that have received additional staffing help from local hospitals as part of a provincial plan to contain outbreaks of COVID-19 in care homes.
Staff from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the Royal Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital have been deployed to the Orléans facility, Sienna said.
Long-term care residents make up over two-thirds of all people who have died of COVID-19 in Ontario, according to provincial data.