Nursing Students Test Positive For COVID-19
8-11-2020
Windsor.Regional.Hospital
is notifying all possible contacts of several nursing students who have been participating in clinical placements at the hospital and have tested positive for COVID-19, as well as taking additional steps to protect staff, patients and visitors.
WRH was notified today that four University of Windsor nursing students who tested positive for COVID-19 were doing their clinical placements at the hospital. Three were on the 7West and 6East units at the Ouellette campus on Nov. 3 and Nov. 6, and a fourth was on the 8North unit at Met Campus on Nov. 3.
The hospital was subsequently notified that a St. Clair College nursing student who tested positive for COVID-19 was at the 6North unit at Met Campus for a student placement on Nov. 2nd.
In all cases, the initial positive contact with COVID-19 came from the community, not from inside the hospital.
In response, WRH has initiated the following actions:
- Notifying possible staff contacts.
- Offering ALL staff on those units, or who have worked on those units especially during this past week, the opportunity to be swabbed as soon as possible on the floor or at the Ouellette Assessment Centre. Staff can continue to work so long as they do not have symptoms for COVID-19, and must monitor symptoms as normal.
- Identifying patient contacts. Since these are students placements, contacts with patients are limited. ALL patients on these floors and any visitors from the past week are offered the same opportunity for a COVID-19 swab test.
- We have temporarily stopped any movement of patients from these floors, except in cases where they are to be discharged home.
- ALL nursing student placements from the University of Windsor and St. Clair College on any unit at WRH have stopped until further notice. Also, ALL clinical student placements from the University of Windsor (with the exception of Schulich clinical placements) and St. Clair College on 7W and 6E at Ouellette and 6N and 8N at Met have been halted until this issue is cleared.
- We are in the process of completing an immediate deep clean of the impacted units.
- Effective immediately, we have suspended any visitation to these floors (7W, 6E Ouellette and 6N, 8N at Met) until the issue is cleared (with exceptions for end of life and palliative patients).
We will continue to be vigilant as the community spread rises and the risks of bringing COVID-19 into the hospital increases.
Windsor Regional Hospital will continue to collaborate with the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, the University of Windsor, and St. Clair College and will keep the community informed during this situation.
As a reminder, to schedule a COVID-19 assessment appointment you can go online on your mobile device or computer (using Safari or Chrome) and select a certain date/time for your appointment or by "first available time." Please have your health card in hand when booking on-line or calling in.
For details on whether you qualify for a COVID-19 test at the Ouellette Campus. please visit the WRH Assessment Centre online.
Please continue to visit www.ontario.ca/coronavirus or www.wrh.on.ca for regular updates on COVID-19
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