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Okanagan Men's Centre

The outbreak at a Lake Country residential treatment centre has been contained to only staff at this time.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health announced the new community outbreak at Lake Country's Okanagan Men's Centre, a residential recovery facility operated by Adult & Teen Challenge BC. While Interior Health has been providing details on outbreaks and exposure events in the region, the health authority made no mention of the outbreak in its daily update Wednesday.

Thursday, Interior Health confirmed the outbreak and said no clients of the facility have tested positive for COVID-19 at this time.

“There are no client cases at this time and there is no risk to the broader public,” said Susan Duncan, communications with Interior Health. “Public health teams are supporting the centre and ensuring anyone potentially exposed is contacted directly.”

While Interior Health has released daily updates on the number of confirmed cases connected to local outbreaks in schools, Duncan would not say how many staff have contracted the virus at the recovery facility.

“To respect the privacy and vulnerable nature of people in recovery, IH cannot provide any additional details,” she said.

The terminology around COVID-19 cases in different settings in British Columbia has been confusing, with IH initially referring to the Okanagan Men's Centre outbreak as a “cluster of cases," before confirming it is in fact an outbreak.

While outbreaks are declared in schools when transmission within the school itself is identified, this isn't the case in other settings.

“In some cases, such as a long-term care home, a single case will automatically trigger an outbreak,” Duncan said. “In other cases, it may depend on whether or not there is a facility involved, the number of transmissions and where exposures took place, the population involved (i.e., if it impacts those at higher risk) and other factors.

“The most important thing for people to know is that regardless of whether there is an outbreak, cluster or individual case, public health teams will always do appropriate follow-up with all those involved and/or issue a public notice if there is broader risk.”