Officials at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance are trying to reassure the public that the hospital in Chatham is a safe place to come for medical care, despite an outbreak of COVID-19.
The Health Alliance announced on Thursday a patient, who was previously considered a suspected case, and a staff member in the COVID unit both tested positive for the virus.
“Up until this point, in addition to confirmed positive cases, we have admitted suspect COVID patients to that unit,” CEO Lori Marshall explains. “Those suspect patients will no longer be admitted to the COVID unit while we are in outbreak.”
Impacted staff are all isolating at home and working closely with CK Public Health for the contact tracing process.
“This outbreak is limited to the COVID unit, and what I want to assure the community is that Chatham-Kent Health Alliance remains a safe place for people to come and access their care,” Marshall says. “Whether that is individuals who have been scheduled for surgery or whether it is someone who needs to access our emergency department, I do not want the community to be concerned about whether or not they should be coming to the hospital.”
As it stands, 11 of the 12 beds in the COVID unit are full right now, either with confirmed or suspected cases, plus two additional COVID patients in ICU. Marshall says some of those patients are from outside Chatham-Kent, and were brought to CKHA either through a transfer from another jurisdiction, or were admitted on their own or by ambulance because the Health Alliance was the closest hospital.
