COVID-19 outbreak at Stoney Creek nursing home after second confirmed case

Hamilton Public Health Services says there is a COVID-19 outbreak at the Heritage Green Nursing Home in Stoney Creek after a second resident tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

A release from the city Saturday said a 55-year-old woman showed symptoms on Thursday evening and was tested for COVID-19. 

The positive test result arrived Saturday morning. The woman was not hospitalized and remains in isolation at the nursing home.

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, told CBC News officials don't know if the woman caught the virus from the first infected person at Heritage Green and likely won't be able to find out.

"We don't know where the first one came from," she explained, adding much remains unclear about the origin of both cases.

But she said that uncertainty isn't cause for concern.

"What we really don't want to see is that this continues to spread from person to person ... this is a high-risk population and these are people who are more likely to have complications from COVID-19."

The first case came Wednesday when an 80-year-old resident was brought to St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton two days before for a scheduled treatment and, after displaying symptoms, tested positive for the virus.

Both residents live on the same floor. Heritage Green is continuing to isolate the entire floor of the nursing home, isolate staff who work there and provide in-room meals on disposable paper plates to prevent spread from room to room according to Richardson.

The facility also isn't allowing visitors.

"We are in close contact with families of our residents, who are understandably unsettled, to keep them informed of the situation," Scott Kozachenko, a Heritage Green Nursing Home administrator says in the release.

Hamilton has a total of 24 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Saturday at noon.