Exclusive | Coronavirus: Post exposes undisclosed Vancouver outbreaks, as medical chief says relatives blame her for deaths
- Twelve people were infected and two elders died in one outbreak, which was only revealed after the Post told authorities it had documentation of the incident
- Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry said a second undisclosed retirement community outbreak was identified as a result, with both ‘managed aggressively’
Two previously undisclosed Covid-19 outbreaks in Vancouver, including one at a retirement facility in which 12 people were infected and two residents died, have been exposed as a result of an investigation by the South China Morning Post.
Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry revealed the existence of the outbreaks during a press conference on Thursday, hours after an interview with the Post about a document that described one of the incidents.
During the interview she also said the Post’s previous reporting had caused people to blame her for some care home deaths.
Henry did not explain to the daily press conference the circumstances of how she became aware the outbreaks were never made public.
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192 died in Vancouver care homes under policy that delayed Covid-19 outbreak declarations
But the Post had informed the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) authority on Tuesday that it had obtained a VCH document showing 10 residents and two employees of the Terraces on Seventh assisted-living facility in the South Granville neighbourhood had been infected about five months ago, information never publicly disclosed.
Despite the multiple infections, the January 7 document lists the Terraces as being under “enhanced surveillance”, a status whose precautionary protocols are much less stringent than an outbreak lockdown.
