Confirmed COVID-19 case causes temporary closure of Lakelands Family Health Team in Northbrook

Mar 25, 2020

(Editors note. This item is an edited version of the item published in the Frontenac News on page 1, March 26.2019 - the original quoted Dr. Moore saying the person who tested positive was a "patient" at the Northbook clinic.  Dr. Moore did not say whether the individual was a patient or a staff member at the clinic. The policy of Public Health is not to provide identifying information about people who test positive - JG)) 

On Tuesday afternoon, the COVID-19 pandemic hit home on the Highway 41 corridor.

On their Facebook feed, the Lakelands Family Health Team posted the following: “Our clinic has been closed indefinitely due to a single positive COVID-19 test. Despite our safety precautions we have one positive. Please take social distancing seriously!”

Later on Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFLA), said that the case has been fully investigated by KFLA Public Health as part of their COVID-19 containment efforts.

“We have investigated and have contacted every individual who may have been exposed to the person who tested positive.”

To reassure the local community, he then said “if you have not been contacted, you have not been exposed.”

Moore confirmed that the clinic is closed because members of the clinics staff have been exposed and are in self isolation.

“The clinic staff will be available by phone while it is closed. Patients will continue to be served, but not physically at the clinic,” he said.

He also said that after a thorough investigation, KFLA Public Health has concluded that Tobia Pharmacy, which is in the same building as the Family Health Team but with a separate entrance, has not been exposed to the virus and can remain open to serve the local community.

A few days before this case came to light, the pharmacy had already instituted a strict protocol. The premises are not open to the public at all, only by phone, and prescriptions and other medicines and products are then available at an impromptu drive-through door at the side of the building.

Dr. Moore said that KFLA Public Health has conducted 492 tests for the virus, and 12 people have tested positive. Of those, 11 are recovering at home and only 1 has been hospitalised. Unlike Toronto and Ottawa, there have been no instances of community transmission of the virus as of yet in KFL&A.

“We have tied every case so far to someone who has traveled,” he said. He is hoping that by following the directives about social distancing, the communities in the region will be spared the clustering of cases that has happened in other locations.

The instructions on the KFLA Public Health website, which have been in place for two weeks, urge everyone to “practice social distancing and regular infection prevention (e.g., wash your hands often, cough into your elbow, don't touch your face, stay home if you are sick, etc.)

The site also says that anyone who has traveled outside of Canada in the last 14 days needs to enter self isolation for 14 days immediately after returning.

“The vast majority of people have been doing the right things, but if there is any weak link in a chain the chain can break, so everyone has to do their part.”

He also said that for the next two weeks, residents should not be travelling outside the region.

“It is time to hunker down.”

Seasonal residents who have decided to ‘hunker down’ at their cottages should be following the same practices as everyone else.

“Anyone who thinks that because they have left the city, they are not longer at risk is wrong. We all need to do the same things,” he said.

When asked if people coming to the region from Ottawa and Toronto should enter self-quarantine for 14 days, Moore said that is not called for at this time.

Of the other 11 KFLA cases, most of them come from Kingston and Napanee, but there are cases from the rural areas as well.

COVID-19 is here.