Dr. Henry: 'Challenging' COVID-19 outbreak at McKinney Place care home in Oliver has ended

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Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s top doctor, has declared the COVID-19 outbreak at McKinney Place in Oliver over.

At her regularly scheduled COVID-19 press conference Monday afternoon, Henry confirmed the good news.

"We are very thankful that McKinney Place is under control," Henry said.

"That was a very challenging outbreak in Interior Health and we know 17 people in the McKinney Place community lost their lives in that outbreak."

All 17 of those deaths were residents, out of 59 who lived at the IH-run facility at the beginning of the outbreak late last year. Fifty-four residents contracted the virus in recent weeks as well as 23 staff members.

An update on the other Oliver care home experiencing an outbreak, Sunnybank care home, is expected via an IH news release this afternoon.

Health Minister Adrian Dix also addressed the loss at McKinney.

"I can tell you from my own experience, the day an outbreak is declared is a very, very difficult day indeed, and the day it is declared over, is a day of some relief," Dix said.

"I'm thinking of everybody who has lost someone in those care homes, everyone who has been through that experience, even if they were not diagnosed positive with COVID-19, everyone who is working in those care homes, we are thinking of them today on what is, I would say, a better day today."