HKPR District Health Unit – Issues Statement That Raises More Questions Than Answers

Statement from Dr. Noseworthy, Medical Officer of Health, HKPR District Health Unit: 

This morning (December 1), the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit declared a COVID-19 outbreak at a workplace in Northumberland County. This is the third outbreak declared at a Northumberland workplace since Friday. 

The Health Unit will not be providing any additional information or confirmation about the location of workplace outbreaks. As health information custodians, we are required under law to protect personal health information. We want to be as transparent as possible and we know our local community has great interest in where cases are occurring in our community. If there was a workplace outbreak and there was a risk to the public, and we were not able to determine all the close contacts, we would notify the public.  

The Health Unit did issue a media release on Friday after a workplace outbreak was declared at Cameco Fuel Manufacturing. This was done in consultation with the workplace and an understanding that the facility was also issuing a public statement.  

With any confirmed case or outbreak, the Health Unit works closely with those involved to identify all high-risk contacts. Those people are contacted directly by the Health Unit for a discussion on next steps. There are a number of factors in identifying a high risk contact, including whether a person was exposed to the positive case during the infectious period and for a time period long enough for exposure, and whether a mask was used by both parties during the exposure period. 

With the number of cases in our communities continuing to increase, the Health Unit urges everyone to follow the public health recommendations to stay home if ill, wear a mask, practise physical distancing by remaining six feet apart from others, wash hands thoroughly and frequently with soap and water, and refraining from non-essential travel, especially to high risk areas.