Relief and fear at Hamilton highrise in outbreak after first vaccine doses

Vaccination against COVID-19 is the first step toward safety for Arefin Chowdhury and his young family at Rebecca Towers in Hamilton.

He, his mother and wife received their first doses at 235 Rebecca St. over the weekend along with dozen of others amid a rising case count.

Obviously, we're feeling safer now and we wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible," Chowdhury, 34, said Monday.

They're among 86 tenants at Rebecca Towers who received vaccinations over the weekend.

Public health transported 58 in buses to the FirstOntario Centre vaccination clinic on York Boulevard, while 28 received shots in their units.

Chowdhury and his wife - who welcomed a daughter to this world in late April just as he and his mother fell ill - were among those who opted for needles at home.

Rebecca Towers is the largest outbreak of the pandemic's local third wave.

On Monday, the total case count was 110 cases, of which 14 were still considered active.

Meanwhile at Wellington Place, a nearby apartment building at 125 Wellington St. N. also in outbreak, the total had reached 42 with 25 active cases.

At the Village, another highrise at 151 Queen St. N., there were 69 cases, of which 40 were active.

The apartment outbreaks involve the B.1.1.7 variant, a faster-spreading strain of coronavirus first identified in the United Kingdom.

A tenant committee at Rebecca Towers has expressed outrage that public health didn't tell residents until early May despite first detecting cases there in mid-March.

They also pressed the city to provide tenants with on-site vaccinations to stem the tide of infection.

The Rebecca Towers crisis has shone a light on the city's failure to anticipate outbreaks in apartment buildings and plan accordingly," tenant organizer Emily Power said during Monday's board of health meeting.

One person has died in the Rebecca Towers outbreak. No deaths are reported at Wellington Place and the Village.

Power noted areas of the inner city are dense with apartment buildings and tenants who must go to work, which makes them more vulnerable.

The combination of low vaccination rates and high-density apartment buildings is a recipe for disaster."

The three outbreaks reveal systemic gaps in health equity," Michelle Baird, a director with public health, told councillors.

Baird said about two-thirds of the cases were attributed to spread within households with connections to workplace outbreaks.

Many tenants are essential workers who depend on relatives and friends for child care, support older adults, and offer other assistance such as dropping off groceries, she said.

So they're unable to remain at home, so minimizing contact overall is a challenge."

Tenants at Rebecca Towers have pointed to factors in their building, including one of two elevators down for repairs since January.

A spokesperson for Medallion Corporation has said the landlord expects the elevator work to wrap up at the end of this month.

The role of airflow in the older highrise has also been the focus of discussion with the emerging concern that aerosol particles - not just droplets - can spread the virus.

Energy engineer David Elfstrom noted the potential for contaminated air to circulate between units in older buildings, causing infections.

So far, 221 cases in the three buildings with 1,110 tenants points to more than just socialization," Elfstrom contended.

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, said public health has advised Medallion to review its ventilation system and report back.

But after consulting with an airflow expert at the University of Toronto, public health concluded contact between tenants was the primary" route for transmission.

Jeffrey Siegel, the civil engineering professor who offered advice, told The Spectator public health should focus on the identified epidemiological patterns.

The virus can spread via airflow but I think it's a very low risk" compared to the other modes of transmission, he said. On the other hand, I don't want people to completely ignore this risk, because it is there."

Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Toronto, said aerosol transmission shouldn't be discounted with superspreader events" in apartment buildings.

It should be something that you exclude via active investigation rather than just dismissing it out of hand, and saying, Oh well, people in this apartment building visit other people in this apartment building.'"

Siegel said the real problem" in Canada is a lack of experts on building science and infectious disease at the same public health tables when cases emerge.

We need people who can do that and it kind of needs to be part of the repertoire."

Meanwhile, Arefin Chowdhury says tenants at Rebecca Towers are reluctant to leave their homes even to be vaccinated. The hope is for on-site clinics for area buildings in outbreak.

Richardson said pop-up clinics are labour intensive and can take a few weeks to set up, noting big clinics are the most efficient and effective" among a suite of approaches.

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com