A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Etobicoke General Hospital’s 7 East Cardiology unit.

William Osler Health System shared the news in a July 17 note on its website.

Currently, all admissions to the unit are closed, except for patients who require telemetry, which is the process of automatically collecting, transmitting, and measuring data from remote sources like sensors and other devices.

“The health and safety of Osler’s patients, staff, physicians, volunteers and the community is a top priority. Osler remains vigilant and is actively working to respond to any outbreak cases,” the hospital wrote in the post.

According to Osler, COVID-19 outbreaks are declared when two or more individuals test positive for acute respiratory illness with any common link within a 48-hour timeframe. This decision, which is based on guidance from the province, was reached after consulting with Osler’s Infection Prevention and Control and Occupational Health and Safety teams and Toronto Public Health.

William Osler Health System said it is now taking extra precautions to “protect patients and health care workers,” including notifying them and using the appropriate precautions to prevent transmission of the virus, including testing and monitoring staff, physicians and patients, as appropriate, limiting staff members who normally work on multiple units to work on one unit only, and enhancing cleaning of patient care equipment and the hospital units.

Osler said that its hospital “remains open and safe,” however visitors can expect restrictions. There’s also increased education for staff about the use of personal protective equipment and proper hand hygiene and physical distancing in place.

Further, all staff and physicians at Osler are also being advised to monitor and report symptoms to Occupational Health and Safety immediately, if symptoms develop at any time.

The last outbreak at Osler’s Etobicoke General Hospital was declared over in early May 2023.

During an interview with CP24, Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CP24 that COVID-19 outbreaks do still occur periodically in hospitals and healthcare settings along with other kinds of infectious disease outbreaks like influenza, parainfluenza, and gastrointestinal illnesses.

“This is something that happens in healthcare settings and that's why we have very dedicated infection prevention and control professionals to help prevent and quell these as quickly as possible,” he said.

“They identify cases and they take steps to ensure that this outbreak doesn't spread and they've been working their butts off over the course of the pandemic.”

Bogoch went on to reiterate that COVID-19 and other outbreaks, although not as frequent and not nearly as deadly as during the pandemic, can still happen at any time, but hospitals have “systems to detect them and to respond to them quickly.”

“Behind the scenes, there's a large group of professionals whose full time job is to take care of that,” he said, noting that’s why masks are still worn in the “vast majority of settings,” especially when healthcare providers have contact with patients.

According to the latest numbers from the Ontario COVID-19 Data Tool from July 8, there are currently seven COVID-19 outbreaks at hospitals in the province.

Data shows that COVID-19 outbreaks have trended down in recent months, in lockstep with lower levels of virus in the community as measured by wastewater surveillance. As recently as January 15, there were 35 hospital outbreaks.