New outbreak in Juravinksi surgical unit brings Hamilton’s active hospital outbreaks to nine

A surgical unit at the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre is under outbreak protocol after six people - four patients and two staff - tested positive for COVID-19.

The outbreak, declared Friday at the hospital's F4 unit, marks the ninth ongoing outbreak at Hamilton hospitals.

Seven of the outbreaks are at Hamilton Health Sciences and two are at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.

There are four active outbreaks at Hamilton General Hospital, two each at Juravinski Hospital and St. Joseph's Charlton campus, and one at the Satellite Health Facility, a downtown hotel turned hospital intended to handle patient overflow.

The outbreaks come as short-staffed hospitals cope with a surge in COVID patients.

Eighteen cases have been hospitalized over the past two days. Hamilton Health Sciences confirmed to The Spectator that a new COVID-19 unit has been prepared" at the Juravinski Hospital to deal with the influx of patients. The unit, comprised of 40 beds in an existing ward, was open as of Friday.

Meanwhile, Hamilton recorded 50 new coronavirus cases and three new deaths Saturday, a dip after three consecutive days of 100-plus cases.

All of the deaths appear to be people in their 80s and over, including one at the St. Elizabeth Retirement Residence where five people have died since Dec. 25.

Active cases in the city dropped to 882 while resolved cases rose to 6,127, a change of 90 and 128, respectively.

There were three outbreaks declared Saturday, one of which is at the central Hamilton police station where three staff members have tested positive.

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com