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.”