There’s an outbreak of COVID-19 at another personal care home, this one in central Newfoundland. Springdale Retirement Living says 36 staff and residents, about a third of the facility’s population, have tested positive with additional test results pending.

President and CEO Shane Penney partly blames Central Health—not frontline staff but red tape and bureaucracy. He reached out to them January 8 regarding positive cases within the walls but didn’t receive hands-on assistance until January 15. He has lost two-thirds of his staff.

He expects things to get worse before they get better.

He and members of his family have also tested positive, further impacting their ability to respond. Penney says the existing system is broken and that the mismanagement of the situation by Central Health officials at various levels is deplorable.

Late last week, the president of the provincial Personal Care Home Operators implored of government to make rapid test kits available to nursing homes throughout the province to provide daily testing of staff prior to their shift. Government says there is a shortage of such kits in the country.