Possible inaccurate results leads to retesting for two Kawartha Lakes homes

DAN CEARNS, Local Journalism Initiative, for The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit is unsure of the accuracy of recent lab results in two long-term care homes. As of press time, the local health unit has confirmed 139 cases of COVID-19 in the City of Kawartha Lakes, with 32 deaths and 103 recovered and 3 outbreaks, although, two of the outbreaks are in question. “Residents and staff from two long-term care homes will be retested, after the local health unit was notified that a lab error may have resulted in false positive COVID-19 results for 13 area residents,” read a May 1st press release from the HKPR unit. “The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit today was notified by BioTest Laboratories in Ottawa that a technical error has resulted in a decision, by the lab, to reject all COVID-19 positive test results performed last weekend, including 13 specimens from staff and residents of two long-term care homes in the City of Kawartha Lakes. There is a concern that these results may have shown a positive test result, when they were negative.” The press release explained, the results in question are from Case Manor in Bobcaygeon and Adelaide Place in Lindsay. “While we hope these cases actually do test negative, this error and misdiagnosis is very unfortunate for the individuals and their families,” Dr. Lynn Noseworthy, the Medical Officer of Health for the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, said, in a press release. “Many of these individuals live in Bobcaygeon, and we know how devastating COVID-19 has been for that community already, so we are hopeful we will receive some good news, with the new test results, and can lift our outbreak declaration at these long-term care homes.” On Friday, May 1st, Bobcaygeon’s Case Manor sent a letter to residents’ families with an update on the outbreak. “We have received additional results from the proactive testing of all residents and team members. Public Health confirmed, from those results, that two residents and three team members have tested positive for COVID-19,” the letter from Sienna Senior Living read. “Residents with active cases of COVID-19 live on the first, second and third floors.”

Meanwhile, Bobcaygeon’s Pinecrest Nursing Home continues to recover from their COVID-19 outbreak. “We have received the results from our most recent round of testing, conducted by Public Health, and we are pleased to report that the majority of our residents have now tested negative twice. We are working with Public Health to commence more testing next week, and we are looking forward to declaring this outbreak over,” Administrator Mary Carr wrote, in a May 1st press release. “I want to thank the community again for their unwavering support during this time. The kindness that has been shown to our staff and residents has contributed in a very real way to our ability to get through this together.”