A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Cambridge Memorial Hospital for the third time.
The hospital says the outbreak was declared on Sunday in the Wing B, Level 4, Medicine B Unit in connection with an event on Jan. 25.
“This outbreak is a little unusual in that it is linked to a room during a very short period of time (i.e., the event),” explained Stephan Beckhoff, who is the communications manager for the hospital.
“Someone with COVID (community acquired) was admitted to the unit. Another patient in that room acquired it and one staff. Both patients have since been discharged or transferred since Jan. 25.”
Beckhoff said the staff member later became syptomatic and was tested for the virus with the case being linked back to the room.
“It is being declared today, even through it is 14 days and no other infections have been noted since then,” he said on Monday.
Beckhoff said that the hospital believes there are no other infections linked to the case.
“That being said, we are swabbing all staff and individuals on the unit. Should those all come back negative, the outbreak will be officially declared over,” he noted. “The threshold for calling an outbreak is two.”
In November, an outbreak was declared in the Medicine C Unit which saw seven patients, two staff and one visitor catch COVID-19 before the outbreak came to an end on Dec. 12.
Just two days before the first outbreak came to an end, an outbreak was declared on Medicine A Unit.
Three staff members tested positive before the outbreak was declared over on Christmas Day.
The latest outbreak at CMH is one of the three with an active status in Waterloo Region.
There are also currently two active outbreaks at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener.
One is on the fifth floor, where four patients have tested positive; it was declared on Feb. 4. The other is on the seventh floor where three patients tested positive; that outbreak was declared on Jan. 27.