A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared on the fifth floor of the Joseph & Rosalie Segal Family Health Centre (Segal Centre) at Vancouver General Hospital after two clients tested positive for COVID-19.
The unit is closed to new admissions and transfers at this time. All non-essential visits to the Segal Centre have been suspended until the outbreak measures have been lifted; the exception being for compassionate visits at the end of life.
Vancouver Coastal Health has immediately implemented strict infection prevention and control protocols to prevent further transmission of COVID-19. These include:
Careful monitoring of patients, staff and physicians
Enhanced cleaning and disinfection of all high-touch surfaces
Closing the units to patient admissions and transfers
Cohorting of staff to the affected areas
Self-monitoring or self-isolation of staff/physicians as part of Public Health contact tracing
Suspension of visitors to the unit (with exemptions for end-of-life situations)
The warning is contained in a screening decision published Wednesday as tribunal member Steven Adamson addresses what he describes as a large volume of complaints alleging discrimination related to mask requirements.
The Vancouver Coastal Health inspection report obtained by The Canadian Press through a freedom of information request says these two issues were rectified while the outbreak was underway in Little Mountain Place.
More than $1 million in grants will be provided to 23 rural, remote and Indigenous communities where substance use services can be limited and the illicit drug overdose crisis is magnified.
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