A COVID-19 outbreak linked to a gathering in the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark region has led to 41 cases as of Thursday at 4 p.m., the local health unit says.
On Friday, the health unit announced 14 new cases, bringing active cases up to 49.
Earlier this week, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit warned residents of community spread in the region following a social gathering.
The health unit would not give specifics about the gathering, but said it took place within two weeks prior to Wednesday.
“It was in a private residence and someone there obviously had COVID and it spread among those people. They were not wearing masks and were close together, and that’s a perfect, perfect environment for the virus to spread,” said medical officer of health Dr. Paula Stewart, in an interview Wednesday.
She said the people at the gathering then brought the virus into the community, to restaurants, businesses, daycares and sporting activities in the Pakenham, Almonte and Carleton Place areas.
One restaurant in particular, the Thirsty Moose in Carleton Place, was deemed an exposure site, and the health unit asked residents who attended the restaurant on Feb. 21, 23, 25 and 26 to monitor for symptoms and to get tested if any arise.
Stewart said they singled out the Carleton Place restaurant because they couldn’t reach all potential contacts of an infectious person. This is also why the health unit decided to publicize the outbreak Wednesday.
“The reason we did the media release is that there may be some people who are second or third generation for those people. So they infected some people who could have infected some other people. And if we don’t know about all of those, then that’s the concern,” Stewart said.
The health unit ran a pop-up testing site Thursday for all of the restaurant’s contacts.
— With files from Global News’ Shauna Cunningham.
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