Almost exactly one month after a COVID-19 outbreak was declared at the Guelph General Hospital, and just one week after the Hospital’s oxygen tank was so dangerously low that a Code Orange was declared, there’s a whole new outbreak on Delhi Street. Late on Friday afternoon, the Hospital announced that they are battling another outbreak of COVID-19 with one staff member and one patient testing positive.

“The Hospital has taken several steps to help patients and keep the virus from spreading,” the Hospital said in a media release. “These steps include; putting all the patients in the unit in appropriate additional precautions, COVID testing of all patients in the unit, closing the unit to visitors and increasing the cleaning being done including frequent cleaning of high touch and high traffic areas.”

The last outbreak of COVID-19 was declared at Guelph General Hospital just before Christmas in the 4 East unit of the hospital, where, according to Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, there have been five patients and three staff members affected. This time, the outbreak is a couple of floors up and on the opposite side of the building in 6 West.

According to the latest outbreak update from WDG Public Health, there are 15 different institutions in the region that are facing COVID-19 outbreaks. There are 274 staff members and 182 patients across all those institutions that have been infected with the virus; in Guelph-based institutions there have been 155 staff members and 76 patients infected. The worst outbreak is currently at Caressant Care in Harriston where there are 25 staff members and 43 patients infected with COVID.

There was been some positive news from institutions this week. Outbreaks at Homewood and Eden House were cancelled in just the last few days, and so an outbreak at Royal Terrace in Palmerston.

There were 136 total new cases of COVID-19 across this region on Friday, and 130 recovered cases making 1,020 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at this time, though exact numbers are unknown due to limited testing availability and capacity. There was one additional fatality to bring that total up to 134 since the start of the pandemic, while the 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases now sits at 284.3 per 100,000 and the test positivity rate is 22.4 per cent.