Local hospital now has COVID-19 outbreak in two units

This morning Sault Area Hospital declared another COVID-19 outbreak, this time in unit 1B.

It’s the second COVID-19 outbreak at the hospital since Saturday when the hospital declared an outbreak in unit 2C.

Unit 1B is designated as a Transition Care Unit to support patients who often require an alternative level of care.

“In a hospital setting an outbreak is declared based on the criteria outlined by the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee on Infection Prevention and Control,” Felicia Clement, the hospital’s communications and digital services coordinator, told SooToday in October when there was a previous COVID-19 outbreak in 1B.

PIDAC defines an outbreak as two or more patients testing positive for the same respiratory virus within a defined area, “with symptom onset occurring within a 48-hour period, and where at least two cases could reasonably have been acquired within the health-care setting,” Clement said.