Health authorities seize Vancouver care home for Chinese elders where 41 died in Covid-19 tragedy

All assets and operations of the society that ran Little Mountain Place will be taken over by the Vancouver Coastal Health authority

Relatives of residents at the facility, where 87 per cent of elders became infected, have demanded accountability for British Columbia’s deadliest outbreak

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Cui Chan Wong, seen in a photo taken in China in 1972, was among the 41 residents of Vancouver's Little Mountain Place care home who died of Covid-19 in British Columbia's deadliest outbreak. Photos: Wong family / Ian Young

Published: 12:16pm, 20 Oct 2021Updated: 10:58pm, 20 Oct 2021

Health authorities in Vancouver are seizing control of the assets and operations of a troubled care home catering mostly to Chinese elders, where 41 residents died in a catastrophic Covid-19 outbreak that began almost a year ago.

The pandemic had exposed “issues” at the charitable Little Mountain Residential Care and Housing Society, which has owned and operated Little Mountain Place in East Vancouver since 1987, said the president of the society’s board, Bob Breen, in a statement released by the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) authority late Tuesday.

In coming months, VCH would take over all society assets, including Little Mountain Place and its Adanac Park Lodge and Little Mountain Court sister facilities, the statement said.

The outbreak at Little Mountain Place – by far the deadliest in British Columbia – was the subject of an extensive investigation by the South China Morning Post, which reported how it was triggered by an infected employee, then spiralled out of control when other staff fell sick too but continued to come to work.