Nine COVID-19 cases reported at Thunder Bay long-term care home

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, with nine of those at the Southbridge Roseview long-term care home.

The latest confirmed cases at the Thunder Bay long-term care home, which has been in an outbreak since early November, came after a round of surveillance testing of residents and staff on Sunday.

Three residents of the home have died since the start of the outbreak. An update on the facility's website shows 40 active resident cases, along with 21 staff members who are considered active cases.

Thunder Bay District medical officer of health Dr. Janet DeMille said strong infection prevention and control measures have to be maintained in the home.

"It's really at a point of very heightened vigilance, heightened action, to be able to keep it stable," DeMille said earlier in the morning, prior to the case announcement. "As people, both residents and staff, recover from COVID then we'll start to see improvement.

"Certainly compared to where it was last week, I think it's in a better place right now."

The lone case announced on Tuesday not related to the outbreak is located in Thunder Bay and is a close contact of an existing case.

There are 114 active cases in the Thunder Bay District, as of Tuesday.

DeMille said the area's case numbers seem to be relatively stable, but would need more time before being able to say the district is on a better trajectory.

"We're stable at a fairly high number of cases for our area and our population base," DeMille said.

"It's not getting dramatically worse but at the same time, would really feel much better if I saw that number going down."

The health unit's data dashboard shows three patients hospitalized with COVID-19, with one in the intensive care unit.