What the public is told — and not told — about COVID cases in Hamilton workplaces
An employee at your local grocery store tests positive for COVID-19.
Will you ever know? It depends.
Hamilton public health publicly discloses COVID cases in long-term care homes, retirement homes, shelters and even hospices, but they have yet to make public any cases in grocery stores, restaurants or other business without being asked about it. And even when businesses make their own employee cases public, the health unit typically stays silent.
According to public health, the decision to publicly disclose - or not disclose - COVID cases has to do with the definition of an outbreak," the feasibility of contact tracing and if the business is open to the broader public.
Some experts argue we should know more about workplace cases; others say that when risk of transmission is low, disclosure causes unnecessary stress.
How public health handles workplace COVID disclosure
Public health generally defines an outbreak" as multiple cases of COVID in a setting or if there is evidence of transmission in the setting, said public health spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov.
Effectively, we are looking for scenarios where the transmission of the virus most likely occurred in the workplace," Durlov said.
Whether the health unit would disclose workplace outbreaks depends upon the setting and whether there is a broader risk to the public," she said.
For example, an outbreak in a private office setting could be managed without broader risk to the public and contact tracing can be conducted by working directly with the workplace," Durlov said.
Technically, Hamilton hasn't had any outbreaks" at workplaces outside health care or congregate living settings, she noted.
Durlov said if an outbreak occurred and public health wasn't able to track down close contacts" - people at higher risk of exposure - it would consider broader notification."
Those at higher risk include anyone who have had prolonged face-to-face contact" spaced less than two metres apart from the person with COVID, usually without wearing masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE). If someone ran into a store to buy something, walked by a table at a restaurant or passed by someone in a mall, that's not considered close contact," Durlov said.
In cases where grocery store workers test positive, public health asks store managers to ask employees to monitor their symptoms. They aren't told to make the cases public, though some do anyways.
Disclosure risk versus reward
One local expert worries publicly disclosing low-risk cases could do more harm than good.
It's ... a risk to people's general anxiety level and mental health," said Matthew Miller, a McMaster University infectious diseases specialist. The disproportionate worry that can come from specifically identifying cases often outweighs the real risk to individuals visiting those places."
Miller says in most cases, someone shopping at a grocery store where an employee tested positive for COVID is at very low risk" of contracting COVID.
He notes someone dining indoors at a restaurant without a mask would be at monumentally higher" risk. In those cases, the restaurant should be logging client contact information, allowing public health to track down those at risk, Miller said.
However, public health deemed a case in July involving a COVID-positive customer at a busy Stoney Creek restaurant patio low risk" and didn't make the case public, even though the restaurant was not tracking customer contact information. Most customers would only have been informed when the restaurant, Cause and Effect, took to social media about the case.
Still, Miller says making cases public could also unnecessarily scare customers, harming a business' bottom line.
This isn't to say we should cover everything up, of course," Miller said. This is all about balancing openness and desire for transparency with considerations about not disproportionately worrying people when the risk doesn't warrant it."
But Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, argues we need more, not less, transparency.
There is no reason why you can publish the name of a long-term care home with an outbreak but not a farm or a food production facility," Mehra said.
This is about protecting business interests and that should not supersede the public interest, so the reporting in the non-health-care industry needs to catch up with the openness of the reporting in the health care industries."
How businesses handle COVID cases
Even though businesses are not required to go public with staff COVID cases, some still do.
Both Metro, which owns Metro grocery stores and Food Basics, and Loblaw, which owns Fortinos, No Frills and Shoppers Drug Mart, post employee COVID cases on their websites. They list the location the employee works at and the last day they worked.
Whenever we have a positive case, we arrange for additional cleaning, and we work closely with the local public health unit to determine the appropriate next steps, including identifying and notifying close contacts," said Loblaw in a statement.
Loblaw said it makes cases public in the interest of transparency" even when public health confirms there is little to no risk" to the public.
-With files from Fallon Hewitt and Joanna Frketich
Katrina Clarke is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: katrinaclarke@thespec.com
COVID cases at Hamilton businesses
Retail and grocery stores
On Aug. 25 and 27, Loblaws announced that employees at a Fortinos store in Ancaster and a No Frills store on Rymal Road East had tested positive for COVID-19.
On Aug. 17, Metro announced that an employee at its Metro grocery store on Fennell Avenue East had tested positive for the virus.
In early June, an employee at the Lowe's on Barton Street East tested positive for the virus. A staff member at a McDonald's in Ancaster was also confirmed to have the virus.
An employee at the FreshCo on Upper Gage Avenue tested positive for the virus in late May. Around that time, a staff member at a Husky gas station on Upper Ottawa also tested positive for the virus.
Factories
In early May, four employees at the Mondelez Canada candy factory tested positive for the virus. As a result of the cases, the Ewen Road factory was shut down temporarily for cleaning, putting approximately 350 people out of work.
Throughout the pandemic, nine employees at ArcelorMittal Dofasco have tested positive for the virus. Seven of the cases were company employees and two were third-party contractors. None of the cases were connected to each other, according to a spokesperson.
In one Dofasco case, a 60-year-old worker in the material handling and logistics unit died. He tested positive for COVID-19 after an autopsy examination May 10.