By Shane Clausing / Liam Verster

11 cases linked

COVID-19 outbreak linked to Signature Support Services facility in Grande Prairie

Aug 24, 2020 | 5:56 PM

The death of a man in his 70’s, who passed away over the weekend due to COVID-19 complications, is linked to a residence operated by Signature Support Services in Grande Prairie, who was one of 11 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported at the group home.

Signature Support Services operates several residential community residences in Grande Prairie for those with developmental disabilities.

Executive Director of Signature Support Services, Darrin Stubbs, says the news of the man passing was tragic for everyone.

“We were devastated by the passing of this resident. He had been in our service for well over 30 years, and he was just a special soul, and very loved by all the staff.”

Along with this man, 10 others involved with the home have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, including seven staff and three clients. Stubbs says that one of the three residents is in their 20’s and the other two are in their 60’s, and all of them are asymptomatic and isolating in their rooms. Stubbs says the seven staff members, a majority of whom are asymptomatic, are self-isolating as well.

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Stubbs says they are in the tenth day of quarantine, and if the individuals don’t show any symptoms by Monday, then their quarantine will be over. Once those quarantine periods are over, Stubbs says Signature Support Services will bring in grief counsellors for the staff and residents who need support.

Along with following all the health and safety guidelines set out by the provincial and federal governments, Stubbs says this death has shown that more could be done to protect the residents and staff in their group homes.

“You’re going to learn from everything, so we’re going to sit down and find out what we learned, and we are learning things. So yeah, we are going to put some new measures in place, such as: we believe that it’s important that people need to wear safety glasses while they’re working in [the group] homes. Everybody is masked at all times, the orders are ‘if you can’t social distance [then people should wear a mask]’ but we’re saying everybody while they’re in the homes now have to wear a mask.”

Stubbs says they will also ramp up their cleaning and sanitizing practices in the Signature Support Services group homes.

He goes on to say that while they are doing what they can to protect their residents and staff, the public can also take responsibility and wear masks when out in public and when the two metre social distance can’t be maintained. Stubbs also suggests businesses should be doing their part to make sure their businesses are protecting the public, and maintaining clean and sanitary environments for their clients.

Alberta Health says that the facility with the outbreak will be listed under the province’s outbreak locations list on Tuesday.