Media Release
HAWKESBURY, ON — The Hawkesbury and District General Hospital (HGH) has declared a COVID-19 outbreak on one of its inpatient units. Because of the importance of this infection, the decision to declare an outbreak was made by HGH in collaboration with the Eastern Ontario Health Unit.
The safety and wellbeing of our patients, their families, our team members, and their loved ones are paramount to us. All patients in the Medicine-Surgery Unit are closely monitored. We have communicated with all staff who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and everyone is following the appropriate infection prevention and control procedures.
We have additional measures in place to further restrict visitation to protect our vulnerable patients and our workers. Only visitors for exceptional circumstances are permitted in the hospital.
Definition of a COVID-19 Outbreak
The Ontario Ministry of Health has defined a COVID-19 outbreak in a public hospital as:
- Two or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases (patients and/or staff) within a specified area (unit/floor/service) within a 14-day period where both cases could have reasonably* acquired their infection in the hospital.
*Examples of reasonably having acquired infection in hospital include:
- No obvious source of infection outside of the hospital; or
- Admitted for 5 or more days before symptom onset (based on the median incubation period of the virus).
COVID testing is not required for patients that have used our services in ambulatory clinics, surgery, emergency, medical imaging, etc. For any additional enquiries, please contact Patient Relations at 613-632-1111, ext. 51702 or email patientrelations@hgh.ca.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our health care workers who have worked diligently to provide quality care during these challenging times.
Information
Édith Jean-Louis
Coordinator, Community Relations
Hawkesbury and District General Hospital
Telephone: 613-632-1111, extension 61005
Email: ejeanlouis@hgh.ca