Skip to content

Thunder Bay hospital staff test positive for COVID-19 (2 Photos)

The hospital will release more details Tuesday.

THUNDER BAY — The recent escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Thunder Bay area has now caught up to the TB Regional Health Sciences Centre.

A hospital spokesperson confirmed Monday afternoon that hospital staff are among those who have contracted the virus.

No details were provided.

The hospital promised to provide more information to the community at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Hours earlier, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit announced that three patients are being treated in the hospital for COVID-19.

Two of these individuals are in the TBRHSC's intensive care unit.

The health unit announced a total of seven new cases in Thunder Bay and the immediate surrounding area on Monday.

Updated information was also provided about the COVID-19 outbreak declared at the Southbridge Roseview long-term care home on Shuniah Street.

At least six residents and two staff members have tested positive. The residents are in quarantine in the nursing home, while the staff members are self-isolating at home.

The home has increased its staffing levels in an effort to control the situation, adding five registered nurses and 39 support personnel.  

Dr. Janet DeMille, the medical officer of health for the TBDHU, said 86 per cent of the cases that have come to light this month are related to three outbreaks.

"What we're seeing is these outbreaks sort of layer on top of one another, which keeps our case numbers looking persistently high," DeMille said.

She said an outbreak will typically taper off after a couple of weeks, "but we're not seeing that because there's an outbreak on top of an outbreak."

DeMille expressed the hope that the local COVID-19 numbers will start to fall off as the outbreaks are resolved, but noted that the most recent one was just declared over the weekend at Southbridge Roseview.

She said the TBDHU and the health ministry are working closely and "aggressively" in conjunction with Southbridge to contain the situation.

Effective Monday, the Thunder Bay District was moved out of the green zone and into the yellow zone of Ontario's COVID-19 response framework, resulting in a relatively modest ramping up of control measures. 



Gary Rinne

About the Author: Gary Rinne

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Gary started part-time at Tbnewswatch in 2016 after retiring from the CBC
Read more


Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks