Toronto hospital declares ongoing COVID-19 outbreak

TORONTO -

A Toronto health network has confirmed to CTV News they are taking action with an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 believed to have originated at one of their hospitals.

Unity Health said they have shut the 2E Medicine ward at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto, tested patients and staff, and started heightened cleaning after two infections were reported.

“We are reaching out to any patients, staff, physicians and learners who had direct contact with a positive case,” said spokesperson Jennifer Stranges in a statement. “We have also taken many measures to ensure the outbreak is contained.”

One positive case was a patient and the other was a staff member, she said. The hospital does have another COVID-19 patient it’s treating but that case is unrelated.

On Friday, Public Health Ontario said it had counted 340 new cases — the highest since mid-June. The new cases and the outbreaks are likely a result of reopening, Dr. Anna Banerji of the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health said.

“It’s not surprising. We’ve lifted a lot of the public health measures. People are getting together. They’re not using as many masks. If you look on the street you can see a lot of people gathering again,” she said.

Cases remain well below the historic highs earlier this year, and with more people vaccinated the risk of deaths and other consequences of infection is smaller for those who are vaccinated, she said.

Other recent outbreaks in Toronto include one at a Yonge Street Warehouse, which was declared over on August 2, and a McDonald’s location, declared over on July 29. It’s not clear whether the McDonalds outbreak was at a restaurant or a corporate office.

A concrete company, Premform Limited, is also listed as having an ongoing outbreak.

People on Yonge Street in Toronto took the news as a reminder the pandemic is not over.

“I don’t spend too much time in malls. I’m in and out. Lots of places with airflow, that’s where I like to be,” Jennifer Murphy said.

“If you’re not vaccinated, get vaccinated. Leave the YouTube videos alone and listen to the experts,” Evan Griffiths said.

One man, Arthur Gogave, said he doubted vaccines, getting a lot of his information from the internet. But four months ago, his 64-year-old aunt died after a COVID-19 infection he believes came from a hospital.

“It changed my mind, I didn’t believe it, but then I realized it was serious after it caught my family,” he said.

Gogave said he’s now vaccinated.

But Dr. Bannerji said it shouldn’t take personal losses to motivate people to get vaccinated, saying mandatory vaccinations should be a condition of going to many workplaces and to school.

“We really need to change the way we think about COVID-19. We need to keep places safe, homes safe, workplaces safe, schools safe. The best way to do that is through vaccination,” she said.

A CTV News and Nanos Poll shows that three out of four Canadians support or somewhat support mandatory vaccinations. Those numbers also hold in Ontario.

The poll asked 1,002 Canadians 18 years of age or older between July 30 to August 2, 2021. The margin of error is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.