B.C. government to release report on its response to pandemic at care homes

VICTORIA – British Columbia’s health minister says the province will release a report assessing its COVID-19 response in the province’s long-term care homes.

Adrian Dix says the Health Ministry commissioned the report by Ernst & Young to learn lessons from the first wave of the pandemic.

Dix says the report will be released on Monday and it is “overwhelmingly favourable” of the government’s actions.

He says the goal was to determine how the province could do a better job of delivering services and all the recommendations in the report have been implemented.

Dix says more than 40 groups representing care homes were consulted last summer and fall.

Canada’s first COVID-19 infection occurred a year ago at a long-term care home in North Vancouver, and Dix says more than 650 residents at facilities around the province have died since then.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2021.