Health officials said 49 residents have the virus as of Friday afternoon. One, a 70-year-old man, has died. Thirteen staff members have also tested positive. On Saturday the home was emptied.
Three ambulances pulled up outside the Rosslyn Retirement Residence Friday evening. The paramedics who climbed out pulled on protective gear and breathing apparatuses then wheeled stretchers through the front door.
Their movements were methodical and unhurried, but inside a crisis was unfolding.
Over the next eight hours residents of the home where at least 62 people have tested positive for COVID-19 were transported to hospital. Others found places to stay in the community.
By Saturday the facility was empty.
“It’s been cleared out at this point,” said Dr. Ninh Tran, associate medical officer of health for the city, adding it’s the first time he’s aware of a home in Hamilton being emptied after an outbreak.
“It’s clearly something very significant and given the situation that was arising it was the right thing to do.”
The situation at the Rosslyn, described by Paul Johnson, the director of the city’s emergency operations centre, as a “crisis” on Friday, appears to have evolved quickly.
But exactly one month before those paramedics arrived, a public health inspector had visited the home and ordered it to make changes, saying the facility was “inadequately prepared to respond to a case or outbreak of COVID-19.”
That warning proved to be true.
Health officials said 49 residents have the virus as of Friday afternoon. One, a 70-year-old man, has died.
Thirteen staff members have also tested positive. Additional test results are still pending.
Fifty-two people at the 64-bed home have been transported to hospital, according to a statement from St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Saturday. Tran said he believes two other residents are staying with family or friends.
‘Nobody is here today’
The Rosslyn did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment and calls to the home went unanswered Saturday except for a woman who picked up around noon.
“I’m just a cleaner,” she said. “Nobody is here today.”
The public health order for the Rosslyn cited two specific issues: a lack of a sufficiently detailed outbreak response plan and a lack of a written process for in-home isolation of ill residents and/or physical distancing.
It also called for the home to take e