Ninth patient in non-COVID unit of Halifax hospital tests positive

Another patient from non-COVID unit tests positive A ninth patient from the non-COVID unit at Halifax Infirmary has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Jonathan MacInnis reports.

HALIFAX — Nine people who were in the Halifax Infirmary's non-COVID unit are now fighting the virus after infection seeped into their section of the hospital.

"All those patients have been transferred to the COVID unit and are being cared for there," said Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health.

The investigation is still ongoing, but Strang says every patient that comes into the hospital is tested for COVID-19. Still, Dr. Robert Strang indicated the virus was brought into the unit by a patient, not a staff member.

"It’s quite likely that there was an individual, their first test was negative, but they were very early on an infection and they subsequently became positive and became infectious," Strang said.

As of late Friday afternoon, Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin says 95 people are in hospital with COVID-19 with 29 reported to be in intensive care.

"People are arriving to the hospital sicker and later into their symptoms, 9 to 10 days into the illness," Rankin said.

Some are admitted directly to the ICU.

"About 25 per cent are coming directly via our emerge centres requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation directly," said Dr. Tom O'Leary, the Nova Scotia Health Authority's medical director of critical care.

Hospitalizations will drop by at least one Friday evening.

Kathi Nelson is going home after a bout with COVID-19. Her daughter however, will be staying behind.

Nelson says her daughter, Jillian Nelson is a tele-health associate at the 811 call centre. She was one of 12 people there to get sick. She is now on a ventilator.

"Dr. Strang was pushing for people to work from home as much as they could and if they would have been allowed to do this, this would’ve all been avoided or at least there might have been a much smaller outbreak," said Kathi Nelson.

One that might have spared is her daughter, whose recovery she'll now monitor from the home they share.