THUNDER BAY — A doctor who worked in the Intensive Care Unit and other areas of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has been diagnosed with COVID-19, resulting in contact tracing and tests for over 100 staff and a smaller number of patients.
Hospital officials say they believe there is a very low risk that the doctor infected anyone else, but they are taking all necessary precautions to ensure there has been no spread.
At a media conference Monday afternoon, Dr. Stewart Kennedy, TBRHSC's COVID-19 response leader, said the hospital management team is "disheartened" to have to report that an investigation is underway into the possibility of a COVID-19 outbreak.
The current definition for a hospital outbreak in Ontario is two lab-confirmed cases within a hospital. No such outbreak has been declared at TBRHSC in this instance as yet.
Nonetheless, "This development is certainly upsetting to everyone involved, and we recognize that it may increase anxiety with a number of people at the hospital and in the community," Kennedy said.
He said the hospital is collaborating with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and its infection prevention and control experts to trace contacts.
"All known contacts, including patients, staff and professional staff have been, or will be, tested as soon as possible." Kennedy added
The doctor, whose name has not been released, worked in various areas of the hospital between May 25 and May 30.
Protocol requires daily screening of all hospital staff, and the doctor had no suspected COVID-19 symptoms until Sunday, when he fell ill in the morning and tested positive later in the day.
The doctor, now in self-isolation, has worked at the hospital as a locum – a physician brought in from out of town to supplement local hospital staff – since it opened in 2004.
Kennedy said he had been in eastern Ontario before recently returning to Thunder Bay.
"We have a strict protocol that the locum signs off on. The physician was at home for two weeks before coming to Thunder Bay Regional Hospital, so he was not working in a hot zone before returning to the city," Kennedy said.
He added that the doctor had been tested for COVID-19 at the end of April, but was not re-tested until Sunday, after he declared symptoms "outside his regular symptoms regarding his allergies and some other minor medical conditions."
Kennedy said the hospital's leadership team is "deeply troubled" by the incident, which he said will have a significant impact on patient care.
A plan to ramp up elective surgeries, which was scheduled for implementation Monday, is now postponed indefinitely.
"Our focus at this time is to contain the spread and protect patients, staff and community members," Kennedy said.
He said hospital staff who don't suspect or don't display any symptoms will continue to work during the investigation.
Followup investigations are being conducted with eleven patients the doctor came into contact with, who remain in hospital, as well as some outpatients.
Kennedy said there's a potential that over 100 staff were also exposed, but emphasized "this is low-risk exposure...when you assess risk, you look at high probability and low probability, and this is low probability."
Hospital officials said the "time course" of the doctor's illness suggests the infection likely developed before he returned to Thunder Bay.
They said studies show the likelihood of passing on the infection tapers off after eight days, eventually becoming virtually negligible, even though the presence of the virus may still be detected.
As a result of the incident, tighter travel restrictions have been reimposed on staff from outside northwestern Ontario.
At the start of the pandemic, the hospital restricted any travel from outside the region, but relaxed the rules in order to bring in doctors to support hospital staff who were working to the point of exhaustion.
While working at the hospital, protocol requires them to wear a mask and gloves during patient interactions, as well as gowns when patients are isolated.
Asked if this doctor was wearing the required personal protective equipment at all times, Kennedy said "there may have been breakage of protocol for short periods from time to time."
He said the hospital will conduct an investigation, adding "Any physician who has undergone a positive COVID-19, any nurse who has undergone a positive COVID-19, requires a thorough investigation to make sure protocols were followed."
