9 COVID-19 cases linked to outbreak at Sizzle night club in Hamilton

Public health says nine COVID-19 cases have been linked with a Hamilton nightclub on Hess Street.

An outbreak at Sizzle was revealed by the city on Friday morning and health officials are advising anyone who may have been at the venue on Aug. 7, 13 or 14 to get tested and self-monitor for symptoms.

All of the cases have been confirmed to be among patrons of the establishment.

Sizzle co-owner Ken Collet confirmed to Global News the club will be open as usual this weekend.

Collet says he had met with public health and they were satisfied with safety measures the club had been taking including masking, distancing and screening protocols with customers and staff.

“We have even extra security,” Collet said. “Way more security than we can really afford. We’re hanging on teeth and nail cause we’re only allowed so many people.”

The club restarted on the day the Ford government implemented step 3 of it’s COVID reopening plan on July 16.

In keeping with capacity restrictions, attendance has been capped at a maximum of 250 patrons. The pre-pandemic capacity was 1,200, according to Collet.

The club is cooperating with the public health investigation and is providing contact tracing information as per requested.

Anyone with questions about the outbreak can reach out to public health via its hotline at 905-974-9848.

Hamilton now has 11 reported COVID-19 outbreaks in the city as of Aug. 20 with the 9 new cases at Sizzle and a pair of cases among patrons at Camp Kidaca from the Bernie Morelli Recreation Centre.

Total cases among all the outbreaks stands at 42 with the largest, 12, at Carol Anne’s Place – YWCA in Central Hamilton.

Four shelters and four workplaces now make up the bulk of the surges with 29 combined outbreak cases.

One outbreak was declared over on Friday at the Bridge supportive housing unit in the city centre. The surge had 3 cases over two weeks.