Two more cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton and Halton
Halton’s second case is a woman in her 40s who had symptoms during two WestJet flights, while Hamilton’s is a man who returned from New York
Two more area residents have tested positive for COVID-19, including a Halton woman who had symptoms during two WestJet flights.
The new Hamilton case announced Thursday is a 52year-old man who returned from New York City on March 5. He is now in self-isolation with his spouse and teenage son.
“Our staff are in the midst of working with this individual to determine what their movements were,” said Dr. Bart Harvey, an associate medical officer of health in Hamilton.
“And to identify any individuals who will be asked to go into self-isolation because they would have had a contact with this individual that could be consistent with the ability to transmit the virus.”
A ripple effect is being felt locally after an increasing number of cases in Ontario, including a total of three in Hamilton and Halton. There were 59 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario on Thursday, up from 42 the day before. One of the cases is a boy under the age of one in Toronto.
It has prompted school closures across the province, event cancellations and store shelves stripped bare of hand sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towel and canned goods.
Harvey warned that only people feeling unwell with symptoms such as fever, coughing and shortness of breath will be tested for COVID-19.
“Part of the challenge is that people are understandably worried,” he said at a media conference Thursday at city hall.
“Someone who is feeling
well but is worried and therefore wants to get themselves tested, they are not going to get tested. They are slowing down the system.”
The Hamilton man was in New York for work and is believed to have caught COVID-19 at a meeting he attended there.
“He was contacted by a colleague who was at the same meeting ... to say, ‘I became sick, I got tested,’ ” said Harvey. “That was his tip-off to be extra vigilant that he’d been in the environs of somebody.”
Public health would not provide any information Thursday on where the man works.
“Our staff is talking to him and trying to determine … whether he was there and if he was, who he interacted with and identifying people who may be at high risk of having had the virus transmitted to them,” said Harvey.
When the man started experiencing symptoms, he contacted public health and co-ordinated with them to get tested at the West End Clinic urgent care centre on March 10.
Public health got the positive result Wednesday afternoon, but the information was not made public until late morning Thursday. Harvey said that was the province’s decision.
“There’s a process that needs to go through with the ministry to co-ordinate all of this and to verify things,” he said. “This isn’t instant reporting ... The ministry does regular postings of their announcements at 5:30 p.m. and 10:30 a.m.”
He didn’t say why the result was not reported in the 5:30 p.m. update on Wednesday.
A similar time lag occurred when public health discovered Tuesday night that a radiation oncologist at Juravinski Cancer Centre was Hamilton and Halton’s first case of COVID-19, but the information wasn’t made public until late Wednesday morning.
It was originally thought that the 32-year-old cancer doctor treated 14 patients on Monday afternoon in Clinic A, but it now turns out that three missed their appointments so it is actually 11 people.
She also worked with nine staff before realizing she had contracted the virus during a trip to Hawaii that ended Saturday.
One of those staff is an oncologist who left the country Wednesday morning before being informed of the risk.
Harvey said public health has now found the doctor, although he did not say where she is travelling. She does have travel companions with her and Harvey said it’s not possible to have her self-isolate there.
“Our staff has spoken to them, alerted them of the situation and certainly made them aware that they should be extra vigilant about potentially developing symptoms,” he said. “Certainly, if they become symptomatic, then wherever they are, they will seek assessment and testing and go from there.”
The radiation oncologist who has COVID-19 is married to a surgeon at St. Joseph’s Healthcare but he has tested negative for the virus.
The new case in Halton is an Oakville woman in her 40s who travelled to Colorado earlier this month and became symptomatic on March 7.
She went to Joseph Brant Hospital for testing March 10 and received the positive result March 11.
She has been determined to have had symptoms on WestJet Flight 2644 on March 7 from Toronto to Liberia in Costa Rica.
She was also symptomatic on her return trip on WestJet Flight 2643 from Costa Rica to Toronto on March 9.
Passengers on those flights are being asked to self-monitor for 14 days and report themselves to their local public health unit if they develop symptoms such as runny nose, sore throat, cough and fever.
So far there is no worry for the passengers on the New York or Hawaii flights that the Hamilton cases took because they were not symptomatic until more than 24 hours later.
“Right now the working principle is that, to be on the safe side, we need to consider these infected individuals as being able to transmit the virus 24 hours before they become symptomatic,” said Harvey. “We are including that window when we go to identify folks who might have had close contact and need to go into selfisolation.”
Hamilton and Halton public health departments say Joseph Brant and the West End Clinic took all proper precautions including testing in an isolated environment and having staff wear personal protective equipment (PPE).
Halton public health is currently tracing the woman’s contacts.
“I would like to reassure residents that the risk in our community remains low at this time and we are working to identify known contacts and assess any potential health risk,” Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Halton’s medical officer of health, said in a statement.
In an email obtained by The Spectator, HHS told its staff that it’s “strongly advising against” travelling outside of Canada. Staff who do travel internationally must notify Employee Health Services before leaving.
Workers are also asked to stay home if they are sick
“Don’t stockpile masks or other PPE supplies,” states the email. “HHS is only receiving a fixed allocation from suppliers so stocks are limited.”
Those with symptoms in Halton can contact 905-825-6000 or toll free at 1-866-442-5866
Hamilton’s COVID-19 hotline is 905-546-2424, ext. 7970, or phscovid19@hamilton.ca or hamilton.ca/coronavirus.