COVID-19 cases aboard HMCS Harry DeWolf cut deployment short

The remainder of HMCS Harry DeWolf's Great Lakes deployment has been cancelled because of a "significant number of COVID cases onboard," the Royal Canadian Navy said in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Friday.

The deployment had includedplanned activities inMontreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston,Trois-RiviresandQubec City.

The navy said the decision was made to protect crew health "and ensure the safety of our Canadian communities when they visit our vessel."

The ship will remain in Montreal on Friday, the navy said, and will be "closed to the planned targeted tours, and closed to the public." The ship is expected to leave for Halifax on Saturday.

"All preventative measures to limit the outbreak have been taken in accordance with MARLANT's Prevention and Mitigation of Respiratory Illnesses-Fall/Winter 2023-24 Direction and in consultation with Health Services," the navy said in an X post.