Windsor Regional Hospital testing all patients for COVID-19 on admission

Windsor Regional Hospital says it has implemented stronger infection control measures amid a COVID-19 outbreak, including testing all patients for COVID-19 as they are admitted and five days into their stay.

"We are taking all the precautions that we need to to prevent further spread," Dr. Wassim Saad, chief of staff at Windsor Regional Hospital, told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning.

He explained that if a patient tests negative twice, then tests positive, the hospital will be able to conclude that the infections would likely have been acquired in the facility as opposed to the community.

A COVID-19 outbreak was declared at the hospital's Metropolitan Campus on Thursday.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit said eight people have tested positive on the hospital's 4N floor, which is a 32-bed non-surgical unit.

The cases are part of a cluster that was announced on Dec. 11. Six of those affected are staff members and two are patients.

The unit affected was one of the hospital's COVID-19 units, with about 60 per cent of the patients positive for virus at the time, Saad said.

The two patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were negative while they were in hospital but tested positive about a week after being discharged, he said.

"Because the incubation period for the virus included some part of their hospital stay, as well as time in the community, it really is very difficult if not impossible to determine whether they acquired it while they were in hospital or in the community," he said.

The hospital doesn't have evidence of transmission between patients or between staff and patients, Saad said.

While there have been dire warnings from local health officials about the effects of COVID-19 on hospital capacity — and outbreaks within hospitals exacerbating the issue — Saad said the affected unit represents just five per cent of capacity.

"So it's not really affecting our role right now," he said.