Fraser Health is encouraging vaccination and testing after a two-person COVID-19 outbreak at a Langley long term care home this week. (Langley Advance Times files)

COVID outbreak declared at Langley long-term care home

Home's staff and residents are 100 per cent vaccinated

A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Magnolia Gardens, a long-term care home in Langley City, after one resident and one staff member tested positive for the virus.

Fraser Health declared the outbreak the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 27.

Magnolia Gardens posted on its website that 100 per cent of its staff and residents are fully vaccinated, but the highly transmissible Delta variant means that such outbreaks remain a possibility.

The health authority is working with Magnolia Gardens to implement enhanced control measures, including supporting staffing levels, restricted social visits in affected areas of the facility, staff and resident movement inside Magnolia Gardens being modified to minimize exposure, enhancing cleaning measures, and notifying family members of residents.

Twice a day screening of all staff and residents is taking place.

Anyone in the Fraser Health region with any COVID-19 symptoms, even minor ones, is being encouraged to get tested as soon as possible.

The drop-in testing site in Langley is at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus on the Langley Bypass and Glover Road. It’s a drive-through or walk-up testing site, and is also the site for COVID-19 vaccinations, for those who have still not had their shot.

The majority of cases in B.C. are now among the less than 25 per cent of the population that remains unvaccinated. For those who are vaccinated and still contract the virus, the risk of hospitalization is much lower, with 73.9 per cent of those hospitalized in the last two weeks completely unvaccinated, according to B.C. government health statistics.

After adjusting for age and vaccine rates, people who are not vaccinated are 25.9 times more likely to be hospitalized than those fully vaccinated.

Langley’s COVID-19 numbers have been rising in recent weeks as the Delta variant of the virus has seen numbers go up.

For more information about COVID-19, visit fraserhealth.ca/covid19.

READ ALSO: Langley’s COVID case numbers among worst in Lower Mainland


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Langley Advance Times