5 COVID-19 outbreaks reported in Waterloo region's 3 hospitals Monday

There are currently five COVID-19 outbreaks in Waterloo region's three hospitals and if that keeps up,it could impact scheduled surgeries and procedures again, one official warns.

Over the weekend, St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener announced a second outbreak at the hospital. The newest one is on the hospital's fifth floor and involves two patients and one staff member.

That's in addition to an earlier outbreak on the hospital's sixth floor. There have been 13 cases in patients and eight cases in staff members associated with the outbreak, as well as one person's death.

The hospital had also been monitoring a situation on its seventh floor, but after an initial case, the hospital says there have been no new cases in that part of the hospital and an outbreak was notdeclared.

The hospital's president Lee Fairclough said in a release that the news that there was no outbreak on the seventh floor is good, but it's a reminder to be vigilant.

"COVID-19 is a relentless virus with a long incubation period and the potential for late onset of symptoms that can extend the period and frequency of outbreaks. We are deeply concerned for the impact this has had on patients in our care and staff," she said.

"We will continue to heighten efforts to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission throughout the building so that we can end current outbreaks and prevent future ones."

Outbreaks atCambridge, Grand River

On Friday, Cambridge Memorial Hospital announced an outbreak on the medicine A unit, but stressed it was only three employees who had tested positive for the virus and not patients.

The hospital said when the first two staff members were found to be COVID positive on Dec. 5, the unit was placed on a "watch status" and the hospital implemented measures to minimize the spread of the virus. A third case was identified on Dec. 10 through contact tracing and testing.

An earlier outbreak at the hospital was declared over on Sunday.

Grand River Hospital also has two outbreaks. One was announced on Dec. 7, but the hospital noted cases in staff had actually happened earlier, but there was no obvious link between the staff cases until the patients tested positive.

Grand River also has an outbreak on its 5S medicine unit. In that outbreak, three patients and two staff members tested positive for the virus. That outbreak was declared on Nov. 26.

Managing capacity

As of Sunday, there were 37 people with the virus in the region's hospitals and 13 of those people were in the intensive care unit.

Outbreaks, and an increased needfor beds for COVID-19 patients, could impact things like scheduled surgeries and procedures, Fairclough noted. That happened earlier this month as hospitals saw more people admitted with the virus.

"Hospitals in Waterloo Wellington work together to manage bed capacity as much as is feasible and with COVID activity and outbreak activity increasing, this is becoming extremely challenging," she said.