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Ontario health minister seen at LCBO while reportedly waiting for coronavirus test results

Click to play video: 'Coronavirus outbreak: Ontario deputy premier addresses visit to LCBO while waiting for COVID-19 test results'
Coronavirus outbreak: Ontario deputy premier addresses visit to LCBO while waiting for COVID-19 test results
WATCH: When asked by a reporter on Thursday about a photograph circulating online showing Ontario Deputy Premier Christine Elliott shopping at an LCBO store while awaiting COVID-19 test results, Elliott explained that she was tested because she came in contact with Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who came in contact with an infected individual, but when she got tested on Wednesday, it was after Lecce's results came back negative, adding that she was advised such a trip would be OK – Jun 11, 2020

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott was seen shopping at an LCBO store while reportedly waiting for her coronavirus test results, but at a press conference Thursday, she said she was following the medical advice that she was given.

In a photo sent to CP24, Elliott is seen wearing a mask while shopping in the wine section of an LCBO.

According to CP24, Elliott was at a Toronto store near Spadina Avenue and Dupont Street on Wednesday shortly after Ontario education minister Stephen Lecce released a statement that his coronavirus test came back negative.

Global News has not independently verified the image or the day and time the photo was taken.

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Elliott and Ontario Premier Doug Ford were tested for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday after Lecce was tested on Tuesday.

Lecce was tested for the coronavirus after he discovered that he came in contact with another positive COVID-19 case.

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Lecce’s test results came back negative, as did Elliott’s and Ford’s.

“I decided to go for testing yesterday because minister Lecce was being tested, and I had been at the press conference with him the the day earlier,” Elliott said Thursday.

“Minister Lecce’s test results came back negative before I went for testing, and so while there was no real need for me to go to be tested, I had made a public commitment to do so, and so that’s where I went.”

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While Elliott was at an assessment centre to get tested, she said she was advised that she didn’t need to self-isolate since she hadn’t been in direct contact with anyone who had COVID-19.

“That was the medical advice that I was given, and that was what I did,” Elliott said.

On Wednesday, the Ontario government said Elliott and Ford wouldn’t be present at the daily coronavirus press conference at Queen’s Park “out of an abundance of caution.”

Both returned to the daily press conference on Thursday afternoon.

— With files from Global News’ Jessica Patton and the Canadian Press

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