Lions Gate Hospital COVID outbreak grows to 36 people

May 18: UPDATE

Three weeks after a third COVID-19 outbreak was declared at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, the number of people infected with the virus has grown to 36 people.

That number includes three additional cases identified among patients in the past week.

The number of those who have tested positive has more than doubled since the outbreak was declared April 28. Originally, 16 patients and one staff member were identified as testing positive for the virus. A total of five staff have been infected, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.

Lions Gate Hospital is one of only two acute care hospitals in the province with a current COVID-19 outbreak (the other one is in Dawson Creek).

There are currently 115 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Vancouver Coastal Health, 38 of them in critical care.

May 11: ORIGINAL

Two weeks after a third COVID-19 outbreak was declared at Lions Gate Hospital, the number of people infected with the virus has continued to grow.

Vancouver Coastal Health confirmed as of Tuesday morning there had been 33 cases among patients and staff at the North Vancouver hospital since the outbreak was first declared April 28. Five of those who contracted the virus in the outbreak were hospital staff, according to VCH.

Originally, 16 patients and one staff member were identified as testing positive for the virus, some of those through asymptomatic testing of staff and patients on the ward after the virus was first detected.

The health authority has not indicated whether there have been any deaths associated with the outbreak or how many.

Lions Gate is currently the only hospital in the Lower Mainland with an active COVID-19 outbreak.

The outbreak, the third to hit the hospital since the start of the pandemic, is on the fourth floor of the hospital in the 4 West and 4 East wards.

Last week, unofficial reports put the peak number of COVID-19 patients in Lions Gate Hospital at over 45, with nine of them in ICU.

So far there’s no indication of how the outbreak started or whether any of those who contracted the virus, including staff, had previously received any doses of vaccine.

Staff at the hospital received first doses of vaccine at the end of December and beginning of January. Second doses are now being offered to those who received the first dose at least 16 weeks ago.

Since the outbreak was first identified, the affected wards have been closed to new admissions and transfers, according to Vancouver Coastal Health, and all non-essential visits have been put on hold.

The outbreak comes at a time when Lions Gate Hospital is already under pressure from the number of patients who have been hospitalized with COVID.

In the last COVID outbreak at Lions Gate Hospital in November, 12 people died out of 59 cases linked to the outbreak, which included 31 patients and 28 staff. That outbreak was declared over Dec. 24.

A previous COVID-19 outbreak on the hospital's sixth and seventh floors in April and May of last year saw confirmed cases in 16 patients and 12 staff members, which led to nine deaths, all among patients.