When her 80-year-old grandmother first moved into the St. Albert Retirement Residence, Allie Jones said her family was glad to know she was in a brand new facility closer to loved ones in St. Albert.
Her grandmother has dementia, she said, so moving her from one place to another can be a confusing and difficult process. But now, Jones said her family wish they could take her out of the retirement home as soon as possible.
"After we heard there were five cases, we were trying to get her out, but she had to get tested first," Jones said. "And then it came back positive."
The COVID-19 outbreak at the St. Albert Retirement Residence has grown to 46 positive cases in residents and 13 positive cases in staff members as of Oct. 29, according to Alberta Health Services (AHS). Those positive cases include two residents at the facility who died on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28.
In an email sent to a resident’s family on Oct. 30, which the family shared with the Gazette, St. Albert Retirement Residence executive director Craig Smith confirmed there had been two deaths at the facility, though he declined to give the family any details surrounding the cirumstances of the two deaths due to privacy concerns.
He wrote that All Seniors Care Living Centres, the private company operating the home, would provide an update to families with case numbers on Friday.
"Alberta Health Services has had their COVID response team in this building for approximately 12 days now. If they would have deemed this a dire situation, they would have taken over immdiately. They have not. They continue to work with us daily to make certain we are doing everything in our power to contain things as best as we can," Smith wrote.
The 183-suite retirement residence has independent, assisted living and ’memory care’ suites for residents with cognitive conditions.
'I started bawling'
Jones' grandmother received a positive COVID-19 test result on Wednesday, she said. Her family found out about the test result after reading a news article online about the increase in case numbers.
"And then my mom listened to her voicemail, and she said all they did was leave a cheerful message saying that she tested positive," she said.
"I started bawling. I just felt really lightheaded and I was instantly thinking the worst because (COVID-19) affects older people more than younger people. I was thinking, would that (last visit) have been the last time I see her?"
The outbreak at the St. Albert Retirement Residence has grown significantly over the last two weeks. The number of people diagnosed with COVID-19 grew from four on Oct. 16 to more than 30 active cases in the span of a week.
On Oct. 23, AHS told the Gazette it is working closely with the facility and All Seniors Care. AHS staff are onsite and meeting virtually to provide direction, consultation and support with outbreak and issue management, resident and staff testing, care and service delivery. This includes quality monitoring visits, led by the Provincial AHS Internal Audit team, which the health authority said is standard practice for all outbreak sites.
Bruce Lillie, All Seniors Care Living Centres regional marketing director, listed a number of measures taken to safeguard residents and staff in an email to the Gazette on Oct. 26. This includes stringent cleaning and disinfecting practices throughout the home, wearing of personal protective equipment at all times, isolating residents in their private suites, and restricting building access to essential visitors only.
However, the spike in positive cases and lack of information is causing families to question how the virus was able to spread so quickly.
At first, Jones said the facility was "pretty strict" on following precautions. Then visitor restrictions in long-term care facilities relaxed in the province, and she said her family was able to see her grandmother outside again from a distance.
"But then as time passed on, I feel like the rules weren't as strict anymore," she said. "The last time, I was actually allowed to go in there and go up all the way up to her area and everything. I mean, they took my temperature when I went in, but any person really could just go in there and bring (COVID-19) in."
Jones said her family is now calling her grandmother twice a day to see how she's doing. Fortunately, the 80-year-old isn't showing symptoms, but Jones said they worry about her health in isolation.
"She doesn't even know what COVID is because of her dementia. She's just locked in her room right now and can't leave at all, or really see anyone, so she's obviously very confused. And that's the saddest part, I think, for us. She's probably really lonely and she doesn't know what's happening, and it just really sucks to think about that."
COVID-19's impact has had disastrous effects on elderly residents in senior care facilities across the country, who are vulnerable to the virus.
In Alberta, the average age of deaths related to COVID-19 is 82 years. Continuing care facility deaths account for about 60 per cent of total COVID-19 deaths in the province.
The Gazette has made multiple requests to All Seniors Care for another update on the outbreak since Tuesday. No further information has been given as of Friday afternoon.
Outside looking in
Addressing communication concerns raised by families on Oct. 26, Lillie wrote staff are “guaranteed” to call back families within the same day, and a situation update letter will be emailed to families at least twice per week, according to the release.
However, families told the Gazette they were not told about the most recent spike in positive cases or the two deaths this week.
"So my mom is going to read that again on the news not knowing this information," Jones said. "We're all sitting on the outside, and there's nothing we can do about it. With them not calling back, it's terrible."
Other families with loved ones at the retirement home say they have tried to get answers from All Seniors Care Living Centres.
Kylah Lefebvre’s 58-year-old mother has dementia and has lived in one of the home’s memory care suites for the last four years. Her family found out about the high case numbers and two deaths from Gazette articles.
"You would think that they would send something out," Lefebvre said. "This is absolutely ridiculous how (the facility) can't send one email out to everybody to let everyone know, this is how many cases there are today, or how many deaths."
In an email sent to a resident’s family on Oct. 28, which was shared with the Gazette, St. Albert Retirement Residence executive director Craig Smith said they were awaiting results from the fifth round of tests. A nurse from AHS is also assisting staff in the building with assessing residents in the memory care ward several times a day, he wrote.
Lefebvre's grandmother, Adell Larson, said she worries about her daughter's health. She said she was swabbed for COVID-19 on Monday, but as of Friday afternoon, they have not received the results back.
"They don't explain, 'If your family member gets sick, this is what we're going to do to help them,'" Larson said.
"What I'm concerned about right now is the cover-up. When (there are positive cases of COVID-19) there, doesn't it look more suspicious if you don't say what's happening? How did it get in there? How did this happen that it got so out of hand?"
