Niagara Long Term Care is COVID-free once again.

In an email Tuesday, Chris Poos, executive director of the Niagara-on-the-Lake care home, said an outbreak that started Dec. 27, 2021 has been declared over by public health.

“I am thrilled to share that the outbreak at Niagara Long Term Care has been declared over,” Poos said.

“We are so thankful for our hardworking dedicated staff and extremely appreciative of our families who were understanding every step of the way as we navigated this COVID-19 outbreak.”

The outbreak saw 74 cases, split evenly among residents and staff. Two residents died with COVID-19 while palliative, Poos said previously.

The outbreak status had not yet been cleared on the public health website as of Tuesday evening.

Poos said now that the outbreak is over the home will start to reopen slowly, “with the safety of our residents, their families and our staff top of mind.”

He said many infection prevention practices will remain in place, including masks, face shields and daily rapid testing for staff, on unit dining with limited capacity at tables, cohorting residents to their units and cohorting of staff to specific home areas.