Senior residents isolating at Grand Wood retirement home following COVID-19 outbreak

Outbreak at a retirement home in South London, Ont. CTV's Jordyn Read reports on a COVID-19 outbreak at Grand Wood Park Retirement Home in London, Ont.

London, Ont. — Senior residents at Grand Wood Park retirement home are waiting out the storm from the first floor — after two fully vaccinated residents tested positive for COVID-19.

"Since the introduction of the vaccine to these facilities we saw a dramatic reduction in outbreaks, we have not declared an outbreak in a long-term care or retirement home in a number of months," says Dr. Alex Summers, associate medical officer of health with the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) on Saturday.

At the retirement home located in south London Ont., two residents tested positive. One remains isolated in the home while the other is recovering in hospital.

Prompting the MLHU to send all residents onto the first floor and into isolation mode as a precautionary measure.

"We declared the outbreak and moved quickly in order to limit any future potential transmission, what it highlights though is the difference the vaccine makes in keeping these things small when they do happen," says Summers.

Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai and the University Health Network Hospitals in Toronto says, while vaccine’s are not 100 per cent effective, they do a significant job in preventing the spread and severity of COVID-19.

"There is still a chance someone can get affected, there is still a chance someone can go to hospital and die, but that’s significantly much less for older people and anyone who gets vaccinated."

Sinha says the best way to prevent future outbreaks is to ensure staff are doubled dosed.

He says across Ontario, approximately 99 per cent of long-term care and retirement home residents are vaccinated.

For staff, that number drops to approximately 90 per cent.

"If we can get 99 per cent of our residents vaccinated we need to have 99 per cent of our staff vaccinated too. It still puts a number of residents at risk, I don’t really believe that health care workers should have the right to necessarily put frail vulnerable people in their care at risk."

Over at Grandwood Park retirement home, at least one resident tells CTV News, that people on the first floor are very upset that they cannot leave their rooms for two weeks, including outdoor walks.

Although they understand the need for protection – they call it is unduly harsh for fully vaccinated people, willing to wear masks and take other measures to isolate.

Summers says typically, fully vaccinated individuals if exposed to COVID-19, do not have to quarantine.

"The exceptions are in congregate living settings particularly for those who are older, the reason is that because of potential lower immune response to the vaccine and increased vulnerability if someone does get infected."

Summers says while outbreaks are expected in the coming months, they’re likely to remain small, adding that facilities are much more equipped to handle and slow down an outbreak this year.

"This will happen periodically because of the nature of COVID-19 being very infectious, while vaccine although exceptional, probably over 90 per cent effective for the whole population, there are going to be breakthroughs to come."