St. Joseph’s Health Centre says it has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at its intensive care unit after a patient and two staff members tested positive for the virus.
The hospital, which is located near The Queensway and Roncesvalles Avenue, said Monday night that a patient who had recently been in the ICU was confirmed positive for COVID-19 after developing a new respiratory illness while in hospital.
“Over the weekend, two staff who were in contact with this patient also tested positive. These staff are both doing well and are at home,” the hospital said in a statement.
The hospital said it is using Toronto Public Health’s definition for an outbreak, which means at least two cases acquired closely in time in a specific area by either patients or staff.
“We have implemented all outbreak precautions in our ICU. All patients who were in the ICU last week at the time that this patient was identified have been swabbed and results have come back negative,” the hospital said. “As a precautionary measure, all ICU patients are on droplet precautions for 14 days.”
The hospital said that admissions to the ICU would continue from in-patient areas of the hospital. However any patients coming to the emergency department requiring ICU care will be transferred to another facility, St. Joseph’s said.
