UPDATE: 24 health-care workers test positive for coronavirus in York Region

Total confirmed COVID-19 cases increase fourfold over past week in York

Yorkregion.com
April 1, 2020
Sheila Wang

Twenty four health-care workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in York Region, as the region's total number of confirmed positive cases climbed to 241 March 30.

The confirmed cases in health care workers doubled from the week before.

These health-care workers include physicians, nurses and paramedics, according to the region.

The number was updated after the region’s medical officer of health, Dr. Karim Kurji, briefed the public on the new developments of COVID-19 outbreaks March 30.

Two long-term care homes and one group home for the developmentally disabled are currently dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19 where staff have tested positive for the virus.

At Markhaven, a long-term care facility in Markham, 22 residents are ill, five of whom have tested positive so far, he said. The facility has 43 ill staff, 12 of whom have tested positive, he said.

Yee Hong, another Markham long-term care facility, has 11 ill residents, five of whom were tested and are waiting for test results, and 10 ill staff members. One resident has been hospitalized, Kurji said.

Meanwhile, two staff and a former patient on the psychiatrist level of Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital have tested positive for the virus.

York Region Public Health spokesperson Ben Mulholland declined to release additional information about the confirmed cases in health care workers over privacy concerns.

On March 23, York Region Public Health confirmed its first case of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus, a day after the region reported its first COVID-19-related death.