UPDATE: 51 health-care workers test positive for coronavirus in York Region

Region's total number of confirmed positive cases climbed to 697 as of Apr. 12

Yorkregion.com
April 14, 2020
Sheila Wang

Fifty one health-care workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in York Region, as the region's total number of confirmed positive cases climbed to 697 as of Apr. 12 at 5 p.m.

The confirmed cases in health care workers went up from 38 a week ago.

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

Among them, a total of seven health-care workers contracted the virus from institutional outbreaks.

Two long-term care homes and one group home for the developmentally disabled have dealt with outbreaks of COVID-19 in which staff members 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, Dr. Karim Kurji, the region's medical officer of health, 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 members and a former patient on the psychiatric 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.