For the second time in a week, St Mary’s General Hospital (SMGH) has declared an outbreak on one of its floors.
On Thursday, the hospital declared there was an outbreak in its fifth floor medicine unit involving several patients.
The hospital says that two patients were sharing a room when one was discharged after testing negative.
The patient then readmitted and retested with positive results.
“This is an example of one of the challenges with diagnosing COVID-19,” Dr. Peter Potts, Chief of Staff for St. Mary’s and Grand River Hospital, said.
He explained that because the disease possesses a lengthy incubation period, it is not always easy to track.
“Our clinicians have been re-testing patients where there is a progression of symptoms, or in the absence of another diagnosis, and this is identifying more cases of COVID-19,” Dr. Potts said.
The hospital’s president says the move has been done out of an abundance of caution.
“Patients who need urgent and emergency care are strongly encouraged to continue coming to the hospital,” Lee Fairclough stated. “Though there is no set criteria to define a hospital outbreak of COVID-19, over 30 hospitals have declared them as a safety measure.”
This is the second time in a week the hospital has declared an outbreak.
SMGH declared an outbreak on Saturday in two separate wings of the hospital which forced it to close its third floor to new admissions.
The hospital says that a patient on the third floor had tested positive for COVID-19 and it is believed it was caught by another patient they were sharing a room with. A caregiver also tested positive for the virus.
On the sixth floor of the hospital, after a small cluster of staff members tested positive for COVID-19, there was an investigation and the hospital says there was evidence of transmission by one staff member to another. The hospital says it occurred in a common space and there is no evidence of transmission between staff to patients or vice versa.
The announcement by SMGH comes within days of a similar announcement by Grand River Hospital (GRH).
On Wednesday, GRH declared an outbreak in one of its medicine units, 8A, after discussions with Waterloo Public Health.
The hospital says that at the beginning of April a patient was admitted without symptoms but by mid-month, they had developed respiratory symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19.
In addition, a person who was sharing a room with the patient and a caregiver for the pair have also developed symptoms.