A Chatham-Kent Health Alliance staff member has been infected with COVID-19.
That brings to 10 the number of confirmed cases linked to an outbreak in the hospital’s Medicine Unit, first declared on May 11th.
“We’re looking at probably the beginning of June now before we would be able to declare that over,” says CEO Lori Marshall. “We’ve had no further patients identified as COVID-positive in some time.”
Marshall says it’s hard to know exactly how a potential breakdown in health and safety precautions may have happened, but when a staff member is involved it could well involve the donning and doffing of PPE.
“It’s a very distinct process that you use when putting on that garb and then taking it off again,” Marshall explains. “It just takes one slip of touching your face with that glove or something like that as you’re removing your mask or some of those sorts of things. That’s how these things can happen.”
There are four staff members currently off work and self-isolating, however only the most recent staff member to test positive is linked to the Medicine Unit outbreak. CKHA officials say one other staff member, who has tested positive for COVID-19, links back to the lab outbreak from March. Another two are not COVID-positive, but are isolating due to Public Health protocols unrelated to the Medicine Unit outbreak.