January 6, 2022 Dear Residents and Families: A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared on 5A – St. Michael’s with three residents testing positive.  All outbreak protocols have been implemented.  The families of these residents have been informed and if there are any issues with your family member, the unit staff will be contact you by phone.  Due to positive staff cases on 3A – St. Anne’s, the increased protocols have been implemented as further investigation and monitoring occurs on the unit.  As directed by WRHA Infection Prevention and Control team, swabs were completed this morning for residents on the unit.  [...]

January 1, 2022 Dear Holy Family Home Families and Residents Today we learned that one (1) resident from 5A (St. Michael's) tested positive for COVID-19 so with an abundance of caution we are suspending all visits (including Designated Visitors) immediately with the exception for end of life visits. This is a very difficult decision but due to the risk of infection of the omicron variant, protecting our residents, families and staff is our priority. We thank you for your patience, understanding and cooperation. We will review visitation in two weeks and advise if there will be any further changes. Holy [...]

Dear Residents and Families: We had a staff member test COVID-19 positive on 4C (St. Basil’s and St. Martha’s) and another on 1C (St. Luke’s).  In consultation with WRHA infection control, and our medical director, we are to follow outbreak protocols for these units at this time. This includes no designated or general visitors to the unit and no short stay absences. With the significant presence of omicron in the community and the degree of community spread, we are asking everyone to reconsider any holiday gatherings and to consider cancelling any of the short absences for residents to mitigate risk.  [...]

One year ago, I reminded all of the passing of a very different and difficult year. But, just as we were hoping for a much better 2021 another variant of the Covid virus came to us all. However, because of all that we did through 2021 with vaccines and more knowledge of the pandemic, we are in much better shape today than a year ago. We thank all, residents, families, staff, management, volunteers, board and of course the Sisters for your compassionate care throughout the year. We are not through this yet, but with God’s help and our collective continuing [...]

Dear Residents and Families: With the presence of the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 in Manitoba, Holy Family Home will be introducing changes to visitation beginning tomorrow December 23, 2021.  The visitation hours will remain the same with the following changes: General Visitors will not be able to visit the Home.Designated Family Caregivers will be able to continue visiting residents in their room one at a time or two Designated Family Caregivers at the same time from the same household.  Visits must be in the resident’s room only. These changes will be reviewed and re-evaluated in the New Year. Masks [...]

Dear Residents and Families: The increased presence of COVID-19 in the community requires all of us to do our part to prevent potential spread of the virus.  We are asking all visitors to ensure they are not attending the Home if they have any symptoms of COVID-19.  Symptoms may present as very mild so we ask you to err on the side of caution.  If anyone in your home is unwell or a contact of someone who is COVID-19 positive, we ask you stay home and follow the direction provided by public health.  Anyone travelling internationally is also requested to [...]

Dear Residents and Families: With the arrival of the new omicron variant in Manitoba, COVID-19 remains a risk to the health and wellness of our personal care home residents. Residents having short absences from the Home for non-essential reasons continues to be strongly discouraged.   The protocols for short absences have been updated by Shared Health and the process below has been revised to reflect these changes.  Short absences will only be considered for those residents who are fully vaccinated as per Shared Health guidelines.  To request a short absence, the following process needs to be followed: Requests for short absences [...]

Dear Residents and Families:             RE: Christmas Season Information With the Christmas season arriving soon, we wanted to share information regarding the processes at the Home. Resident Gifts: Gifts may be dropped off for the residents between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm.  Each gift will be sanitized prior to delivery to the resident.  We will do our best to be able to sanitize to enable visitors to take the gift during visiting hours but we may not be able to keep up with the volume.  Your patience is appreciated.  Gifts for Staff: The kind and generous gifts to units and [...]