B.C.’s health minister said that the Red Cross will be deployed to assist in long-term care homes in two of the province’s hardest hit health authorities.
Adrian Dix said that the response teams will be made up of non-clinical and administrative staff sent to priority long-term care homes and assisted living facilities, initially in Fraser Health and Vancouver Health.
“It’ll work this way: a Red Cross assessment team visits and performs an epidemic prevention and control assessment to identify areas of need and to familiarize Red Cross staff with the facility,” Dix said during a COVID-19 press conference Monday (Feb. 1).
The health minister said teams of support aides, typically two groups of 10, will cover seven day a week services for a maximum of four weeks per facility.
The Red Cross teams are expected to help out at five sites within Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health.
There are currently 25 long-term care and assisted living facilities dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks in B.C. Nearly half of those (13) are in Fraser Health, while three are in Vancouver Coastal Health, six in Interior Health, two in Northern Health and one in Island Health.
Health officials announced last week that all long-term care residents have been offered at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
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