Regional update: Two Saint Joseph residents and one employee have COVID-19
MARIA: – Two residents and one employee from the Saint Joseph Residence in Maria are among the five new cases of COVID-19 in the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands. Those new cases bring the regional total 84.
Saint Joseph Residence is a government-owned facility and becomes the first such home in the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands to be struck by coronavirus cases. Chantal Duguay, director general of the Gaspé Peninsula Integrated Health and Social Services Centre, points out that for now it isn’t possible to establish a link between the Saint Joseph Residence cases and the major COVID-19 outbreak at Manoir du Havre, at the end of March. That outbreak is responsible for at least 45 of the region’s 84 cases.
The two residents and the employee are in quarantine. The epidemiological investigation is underway. The 97 residents at Saint Joseph will be tested. The 115 employees of the residence must now wear a mask. The employees who are in contact with the quarantined individuals must add a jacket, a visor and gloves.
Chantal Duguay is launching a recruitment drive to hire people who can help the region’s health staff. She is not quantifying the needs of her organization yet but she points out that “we were already recruiting before the pandemic.”
Regional update: A fourth casualty linked to the Manoir du Havre COVID-19 outbreak
CARLETON: – According to the Gaspé Peninsula Magdalen Islands Public Health Board there is a fourth casualty linked to the Manoir du Havre COVID-19 outbreak. As with the three previous cases, the victim was “very old and very ill,” says Dr. Iv Bonnier-Viger, director general of the Public Health Board.
He is also reporting four new cases of individuals with the coronavirus, which brings the regional total to 79. Two of the new cases are attributable to the Manoir du Havre outbreak, which brings the total for that outbreak to 45. The two other cases are linked to cases that are already being followed by the Public Health Board.
This means that there is still no community transmission in the Gaspé Peninsula and Magdalen Islands.
The region’s Integrated Health and Social Services Centre is deploying a greater number of nurses specialized in infection prevention. All government-run seniors’ residences (CHSLDs) will permanently count on one of these nurses, and private seniors’ residences will receive daily visits.
Six people from the region are still hospitalized in Quebec City.