Vancouver coronavirus disaster: Infected staff tried to ‘push through’ their symptoms at care home where 41 elderly died, leak suggests
- Zoom briefings about Little Mountain Place, where 87 per cent of residents were infected, indicate catastrophic failure of ‘self-monitoring’ system among staff
- Investigator said infected staff downplayed their symptoms and kept going to work in a tragic case of ‘presenteeism’ that fuelled BC’s deadliest outbreak
The circumstances of the December 7 virtual town hall meeting with relatives of residents at the Little Mountain Place care home were grim: a Covid-19 outbreak had been reported.
In the fortnight since the first case had been diagnosed in the suburban Vancouver facility, mostly occupied by elders of the Chinese and Asian communities, 59 residents had become infected and five had died.
But Dr Michael Schwandt, a medical health officer with the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) authority, sounded almost upbeat on the Zoom call, which was leaked to the South China Morning Post. He expressed confidence that anti-infection protocols would succeed; after all, a previous outbreak at Little Mountain Place in March had been swiftly stamped out.
Precautions were being strictly followed, he assured listeners. Staff were ready. Measures would be “airtight”.
It didn’t turn out that way. Soon, the outbreak at Little Mountain Place was spiralling out of control.
Dozens more residents and staff soon became infected, in a catastrophic cascade that overwhelmed the home’s frail residents.