Resident dies at Windsor long-term care home in major COVID-19 outbreak

A resident at The Village at St. Clair long term care home in Windsor has died from COVID-19, the first death in a major outbreak at the home.

The home announced the deathin a statement on its website Wednesday.

In addition to the death, the home said that as of Tuesday evening54 residents and 34 staff members have tested positive.

All of the staff members are self-isolating at home. The home said it is bringing in outside staff to make up for the almost three-dozen staff off work. It's not clear how many staff have been brought in.

The post from The Village at St. Clair says it is "mobilizing additional support until they can safely return to work so we can continue to meet the care needs of residents."

The statement also said that"every Village has a full stock of all necessary PPE required to safely support our residents, whether or not that they contracted COVID-19."

Early on in the pandemic, local hospitals divvied up the region's long-term care and retirement homes to assist them. Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) told CBC News that itpartnered with 11 local care homes, including the The Village at St. Clair.

HDGH'sVP of external affairs Bill Marra said the hospital provides staff to assist with inspections and to offer recommendations related to infection prevention and control, but doesn't have a bigger role beyond that.

"We're strictly there as a resource and the way things have changed, because of their outbreak, we're hearing with them more often, we're involved in meetings on a regular basis," he said, though Marra couldn't provide additional details as to what has come out of these meetings.

"We are not involved in the operations or decision making on how they operate," he added.

Family of resident feels left in the dark

Maryhelen Lindsay told CBC News that she hasn't been able to get an update on her 78-year-old father Dominic or speak to him via video chat in about a month.

Until recently, Lindsay said her momhadbeen able to go into the home as she's an essential caregiver.

"No body is able to Facetime with us. We're trying to find out what's going on but we don't really know. The nurses are working extremely hard, but we don't really know," she said, adding that at this time all she knows is that her father hasn't tested positive for the disease because she would have been notified.

"It's very difficult to not know what's going on with your own family member," she said, adding that she wishes communication was a bit better as her calls and emails have gone unanswered.

"That would be nice, be able to see my dad," she said."Just to give us the mindset that he's okay and I know he's okay."