Both the provincial health ministry and the Northern Health Region (NHR) have confirmed that a COVID-19 outbreak at the Flin Flon Personal Care Home is now over. Both residents who tested positive for COVID-19 have since recovered and no other residents have tested positive.
“The outbreak at the Flin Flon Personal Care Home was declared over on March 5,” reads a statement to The Reminder from an NHR spokesperson.
“Two residents were affected and both recovered.”
According to Manitoba health data, four people - two residents and two staff members - had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Personal Care Home. Under Manitoba policy, an outbreak in a health care or long-term care setting is declared when two or more people test positive for COVID-19 with evidence of possible transmission within the area - occasionally, one case can lead to an outbreak being declared under certain conditions.
As of March 14, only two areas in the NHR were still considered as active outbreak sites - the Northern Spirit Manor in Thompson (where 11 people, including nine residents, have tested positive according to provincial health data, with two people having recovered) and Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, which has been considered to be a community outbreak site by the province for months. Other sites recently considered to be outbreaks, including the Nisichawayasihk personal care home in Nelson House and St Paul’s Personal Care Home in The Pas, have been removed from the province’s outbreaks board.
Two other outbreaks were reported at the Flin Flon PCH earlier in the pandemic - one in Nov. 2020 and a second in April 2021.
As of March 14, there were 32 active cases of COVID-19 - confirmed either by PCR testing or rapid antigen tests observed by medical professionals - in the Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry Portage/Sherridon health district.
