Hospital still 'open for business' as officials work to limit possible spread of COVID-19

JuravinskiCancer Centreis "open for business" andhospital officials say the situation is under control a day after learninga doctor working there hadtested positive for COVID-19.

When the hospital and public health learned late Tuesday of the positive test they immediately turned their attention to reaching people the radiation oncologist had come into contact with to tryto limit the potential spread of the virus.

Thatincludes 14 cancer patients the doctor treated Monday a particularly vulnerable group because of compromised immune systems.

Similar conversations are happening at St. Joseph's Healthcare, where the doctor's spouse works as a surgeon.

A spokesperson for St. Joe's said he worked at theCharlton campus before his partner tested positive.

"We are currently reviewing who he had contact with during that time," said Agnes Bongers, adding the surgeon is not showing symptoms, but is also in self-isolation while awaitingthe results of a test for COVID-19.

Public health officials confirmed Wednesday that a doctor, who'sin her 30s and lives in Burlington,was the city's first confirmed case of the new coronavirus.

She was tested Monday before going into self-isolation at home that same day. Staff have since scrubbed down the clinic where she worked.

The hospital remains open.

"We feel that we have our situation in the ... cancer centrewell under control," said Dr. Barry Lumb, chief of medicine at Hamilton Health Sciences during a media update Wednesday."We are open for business and we are continuing to take care of patients."

The doctor in question returned from a trip to Hawaii Saturday and came into work Monday afternoon before she started feeling unwell and underwent testing at the hospital's emergency department.

During a media update, officialspraised the doctor for responding quickly as her symptoms began, even though she wasn't coming back from a high-risk area.

"Our feeling isthis was veryearly in her illness and therefore we're very hopeful the risk to the patients is equally low," said Lumb.

Despite her rapid response, the doctor did come into contact with 14 patients, according to Lumb, as well as five staff members, one senior resident and three other physicians.

The staff and physicians are all self-isolating, except for one of the doctors, who has left the country.

Officials are still trying to reach her, said Lumb, who couldn't confirm where she was travelling.

All told, 34 people werecontacted Wednesday, said Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, Hamilton's Medical Officer of Health.

Hamilton public health hasbroken down the people the doctor worked with into three separate groups.

The first level includes the people who came into the closest contact with the doctor or her patients.

"Those are the individuals we think could be a higher risk, so we have asked them to self-isolate and remain at home," Richardson explained.

The secondlevel includes people who were in the area that day. Their risk isn't as high as the first group, but they're still being asked to stay home.

Patients of the clinicians who worked with the doctor the day she fell ill make up the third group. Richardson said those people are being contacted and asked to self-monitor for symptoms.

"We are very satisfied we are getting a good degree in term of contacts who could be there," she added.

"Part of the reason for that is the setting we're talking about, this being a cancer centre, so people who might be at higher risk in terms of having a more severe illness, so we are taking a very cautious approach as we move forward."

Cancer patients 'particularly vulnerable'

Lumbalso noted cancer patients can have compromised immune systems, and said that's something officials will be paying special attention to.

"They're a particularly vulnerable group of patients," he noted. "I think what it speaks to is our vigilance now, should any of these individuals develop symptoms. That we have an extremely low threshold to bring them in and investigate them."

In the meantime, the hospital remains open and the are where she worked has been thoroughly disinfected three times.

"On Monday evening that clinic would have been cleaned," said Lumb. "On Tuesday evening that clinic would have been cleared and then, out of an abundance of caution, we actually had a very aggressive terminal cleaning carried out in the night last night."