Ottawa’s first coronavirus case a Ciena employee

Kanata campus closed until March 17; infected man had travelled to Austria

Telecommunications giant Ciena has confirmed an employee is the first person in Ottawa to have contracted the novel coronavirus.

An email from company vice-president Nicole Anderson late Wednesday afternoon said the firm has responded by closing its Kanata campus until March 17, which is about 14 days after the individual was last in the office.

The roughly 1,500 employees have been asked to work remotely until the office, near the corner of March Road and Terry Fox Drive, is able to reopen.

While Anderson wrote the employee was “overseas on vacation,” an internal memo sent to Ciena staff says the infected man was travelling with two other employees. Between now and March 17, Ciena pledged to perform “a thorough cleaning and sanitizing of the entire Ottawa campus.”

The employee, in his 40s, is in self-isolation at home and said to be progressing well. Ottawa’s public health unit said the worker had been travelling in Austria.

Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, said the man did not have any symptoms during his flight back to Ottawa, but became ill at home. He went the Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus to be tested. The positive result was delivered Wednesday morning.

“The individual has been conscientious about his self-isolation and he’s been accepting guidance from Ottawa Public Health,” Etches said at a Wednesday afternoon media briefing about the case. “Ottawa Public Health is following up with a number of close contacts as part of our ongoing case management.”

His symptoms are mild, she said. The memo asked that all Ottawa-based employees not engage in any business travel until March 17. It also requested that any employee or contractor who takes a personal trip to hot-spot countries must work from home for 14 days upon return and be symptom-free before coming back to the Kanata campus. The countries listed are China, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or Thailand

“Like most companies, we have for several weeks been implementing precautionary measures and safeguards to protect our employees, including several office closures, encouraging remote working when and where possible, significant travel restrictions, cancellation of event participation and self-quarantine requirements for those who have travel to or through certain countries,” Ciena’s Anderson wrote.

“We continue to closely monitor the situation and update our restrictions and guidance to employees very frequently.”

The public health department said there is no risk to anyone else on the return flight from Austria.

“This person was asymptomatic on the plane so there’s no need to work on identifying the flight numbers or others on the plane. There’s no risk to others on the plane,” Etches said.

“Once he was back in Ottawa, what he started to feel was a little unwell and to develop the symptoms of a respiratory illness.”

OPH says it is monitoring the man’s “close contacts”, defined as family members or people who may have shared respiratory secretions.

“The number is small,” she

This person was asymptomatic on the plane so there’s no need to work on identifying the flight numbers or others on the plane.

said. “The person has been very conscientious and has not been at work.”

Officials don’t believe the man has taken any public transit since he arrived home.

Ciena, which makes fibre-optic communications equipment, opened a 425,000-square-foot campus in Kanata in 2017.

In 2019, it sold about $3.6 billion (U.S.) worth of networking gear, like the kind of equipment that links mobile phone towers and provides high-speed transport for streaming video across and between continents. Among its customers are industry giants like AT&T and Verizon.

With files from Blair Crawford. kegan@postmedia.com