Sarnia-Lambton warns of significant COVID-19 transmission in community

Sarnia-Lambton is seeing a "significant COVID-19 transmission,"according to a news release Thursday from the local public health unit.

An outbreak at a long-term care facility in Sarnia, two positive COVID-19 casesatlocal schools and a workplace outbreak are all under active investigation by Lambton Public Health. In a news release, the health unit said it is performing case and contact management follow-up on other potential cases.

Bright's Grove Public School andColonel CameronPublic School reported one case each Thursday on the Lambton-Kent District School Board website.

The two schools remain open, though at the direction of Lambton Public Health, two classes from each school have been sent home to quarantine.

At Bright's Grove, 47 students are in quarantine and from Colonel Cameron, 45 students are at home, according to the school board.

In addition to this, apositive case of COVID-19 at a long-term care home in Sarniahas placed the facility under outbreak. This means that access is restricted andprotocols have been added in for staff and residents. The news release says that details on the location will be provided once the facility completes its notification process.

As for the workplace outbreak, there are no details on the location. The news releasestates that a workplace outbreak is declared when there are two or more positive cases. The health unit said that all employees and close contacts have been identified and moved into isolation.

"Narrow the scope of activities to absolute essentials to keep the spread to a minimum and allow other activities to function. Transmission is connected to our social interactions and behaviours," Lambton'smedical officer of health Dr. Sudit Ranade said in a news release.

People should limit the amount of time and contact with others outside of their household, the release continued to advise, recommending that businesses, organizations and facilitiesreview and monitor their operations.

As of Wednesday, the health unit reported a total of 351 cases, with three active.

Twenty-five people have died in the region due to the disease.