Fiddick’s cleared outbreak status Nov. 11

The restrictions related to a COVID-19 outbreak at Fiddicks Retirement and Nursing Home in Petrolia have been lifted.

And public health officials say they may never trace the source of the infection.

The home was placed in outbreak Oct. 30 after one resident on the retirement side tested positive for the virus. The provincial guidelines consider one case of COVID-19 in long term care an outbreak.

Lambton Public Health says there have been no other infections in the home.

In a social media post jointly signed by Administrator Mike Fiddick and Mandy Judah, Director of Resident Care, Fiddicks explained the resident had not been in the home since testing positive.

“A resident from our retirement home was sent to hospital for non-COVID matter on Oct. 27. While at hospital, this resident tested positive for COVID-19,” says the statement

“Our home was made aware of the positive COVID-19 result on the evening of Oct. 29 and the home immediately implemented our COVID-19 pandemic plan. Our home went into a COVID-19 outbreak status on Oct. 30 as per Lambton Public Health.

“As the resident who was positive has not been in the home since Oct. 27 and as all staff and residents are negative for COVID-19, we are officially out of isolation as of Nov. 11.”

Dr. Sudit Ranade, during a media conference Thursday, says Lambton Public Health “does not have a particular source” of the COVID-19 infection in the retirement home resident.

“It remains a mystery to us,” Ranade says.

“There lots of times where you’re not entirely sure where somebody got it from? And then you go through this process of saying, well, do we really think that they had? You know, so there’s all of these sort of elements to try to try to understand for the overall picture, whether or not you think it was a real case, whether or not you think that that case was particularly infectious, all of those kinds of things?” he says adding this was a clear case of COVID-19.

“Sometimes we just don’t know.”