Heritage Lodge. Photo Credit: Shaun Penner

By Shane Clausing

Heritage Lodge outbreak

COVID-19 outbreak at Heritage Lodge prompts lockdown measures at facility

Aug 25, 2020 | 7:12 PM

Alberta Health confirmed Tuesday that there has been a COVID-19 outbreak at the Heritage Lodge facility in Grande Prairie.

Alberta Health says as of the end of day Monday, there are three active cases linked to the facility.

Two of those active cases are staff members who work at the home, while one is a resident who lives at the facility.

“Right now, we are aware of three cases that are related to the facility, that would be one resident and two non-Grande Spirit staff that typically support services in the building,” explained Steve Madden the General Manager of the Grande Spirit Foundation, who operates the home.

“Other than that, those three folks are not in the building currently and the lodge is in outbreak mode, with all the residents in isolation, awaiting (COVID-19) testing results that were conducted on the weekend.”

Madden tells EverythingGP that the facility was notified of two positive tests on Friday, August 21 and one on Saturday, August 22.

Since being notified, the two staff members are self-isolating at home while the one resident at the home was taken to a health facility to self-isolate away from the rest of the residents at Heritage Lodge.

Madden says he doesn’t know the status of the two staff members, as they work for a separate company, but says that the resident who is currently isolated at the health facility is doing well.

He also says that the facility is checking in with the infected resident daily, to make sure their health is okay.

It should be noted that being transferred to a health facility does not mean the resident has been hospitalized.

Madden said that he doesn’t know how the virus got into the home, but once they found out about the positive tests, they moved into action and immediately contacted families and Alberta Health Services.

With the facility in outbreak mode, Madden says all precautions are being taken.

“Our staff are wearing continuous masking, washing hands, along with the Alberta Health Services staff,” said Madden.

“We are getting clear direction from Alberta Health Services daily on what we need to do and what they need to do. AHS are working directly with each resident, going into the rooms and they’re constantly changing their equipment to go from one room to the next. That’s necessary to prevent that spread, if it does exist.”

“We are really hoping that the family members of the residents will call and keep the spirits high, we realize that isolation isn’t the greatest thing, but unfortunately it’s a necessity considering COVID being as contagious as it is.”

Visits at the facility have been suspended for residents, and the only people allowed in the facility are designated caretakers or designated family members of residents.

Madden assured that they have many teams working inside Heritage Lodge and they are doing their best to ensure that the residents are being taken care of.

“We want to hear from everyone if there’s some concerns or some kind of challenge that some members are having, they can certainly call our office and provide us some feedback.”

For now, Madden says that staff at the facility are doing their best to keep spirits high for residents at the facility. He added that goodie bags were passed around on Tuesday to all residents inside the facility.

With the facility on lockdown, Madden wanted to issue a call to residents of Grande Prairie regarding the danger and the potential spread of COVID-19 in the community.

“To everyone: Please consider masking, wash your hands, and do think about our seniors. This situation is super uncomfortable. Social distance and think about COVID when you are out doing your activities or out at your events. Please think about our seniors and what they are going through right now and what we can do to protect them, so we don’t run through these kind of scenarios in the future.”