A Waterloo Region day camp has been placed in outbreak status after a child camper has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to Waterloo Public Health.
The camp was placed into outbreak status on Monday after Waterloo Public Health became aware of the positive test.
“That case is a child who attends the camp, but we won’t be providing any more specifics about the camp because camps can be relatively small in terms of numbers,” said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region’s acting medical officer of health. “So we want to make sure we can protect privacy.”
Wang did say that it was a relatively small camp which continues to operate.
“The number of children who were potentially affected is not a significant number,” she said.
Wang said Waterloo Public Health continues to investigate where the child acquired the virus.
Wang says that all parents and staff members will be informed if there is an outbreak at a camp in Waterloo Region.
“Usually, the camp operators or daycare operators will then send out information to make sure they reach the parents and staff that they need to, to pass the public health information that we would provide,” Wang explained.
She says that a positive test does not automatically mean that a camp will be shutdown.
“It depends on our assessment of the situation in terms of exposure to other children and staff and whether or not there is a need to cease activities in part of the camp or for all of the campers. So it doesn’t necessarily mean a shutdown,” she said.
There was a single new positive test for the novel coronavirus reported by Waterloo Public Health on Thursday but the total number of cases has actually fallen by three.
The agency says there have been 1,438 COVID-19 cases in the area.
The region’s top doctor said a switch to the province’s reporting system is the cause of recent fluctuations in number of cases.
“We are fine tuning our data quality processes for the new system,” Wang said. “We’ve had to make small adjustments to our overall numbers due to reasons such as removing duplicates or transferring cases that should be attributed to other health units.”
She says the fluctuations will continue as other health units sign onto the system.
“For example, today we have one new positive case in our region and for previously reported cases were transferred to another health unit,” Wang explained.
Two more people have been cleared of the virus in Waterloo Region raising the total number of resolved cases to 1,283.
There have been no COVID-19-related deaths reported in the area since last Thursday so the death toll remains at 120.
We are now down to 35 active cases in the region including two people who remain in hospital due to COVID-19.
More to follow…