Deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in B.C. declared over at Langley Lodge

LANGLEY (NEWS 1130) — The deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in B.C. has been declared over at Langley Lodge, the Fraser Health Authority confirmed Friday.

The long-term care home had multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, which resulted in 25 deaths — the most at any one site in the province during the pandemic.

The outbreak at Langley Lodge, which included 51 resident cases and 15 involving staff, was first declared on April 28.

The onset of symptoms in the last confirmed COVID-19 case at Langley Lodge, according to its website, was June 5.

“With the implementation of comprehensive strategies to prevent and respond to COVID-19 in care facilities, there are no longer any COVID-19 cases at this site,” Fraser Health says in a release.

The health authority appointed a director of pandemic response to assist at Langley Lodge.

“We worked very closely with Langley Lodge to further support the facility leadership and staff. In addition to the COVID-19 outbreak control measures, we deployed our ultraviolet germicidal irradiation machine to the site with infection control specialists,” says Fraser Health.

“Additional nurses and care staff were also deployed to ensure resident care needs continued to be met.”

More than half of the 177 deaths from COVID-19 in B.C. are linked to care homes, including the first, at the Lynn Valley Care Centre. The latter had 76 confirmed cases of the virus and 20 resident deaths.

The outbreak at Lynn Valley was declared over in May.

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Earlier this week, the province relaxed pandemic restrictions to allow visitors in B.C. long-term care homes, but with some rules still in place.

People living in long-term care and assisted-living homes will be allowed to have one designated visitor come see them in a specified area — indoors, outdoors, and in some single rooms — once WorkSafeBC plans are approved.

Visitors will need to wear masks and book appointments in advance. Facilities will need to designate staff to screen everyone who nters the buildings, as well as space visits throughout each day.

Visitors had been banned from care homes since mid-March, when the first outbreak was declared at the Lynn Valley Care Centre.

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