Two coronavirus outbreaks at the Enfant-Jésus hospital

The Enfant-Jésus hospital in Quebec City is struggling with two coronavirus outbreaks with at least a dozen employees and twelve patients who have been diagnosed positive for the disease.

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The CHU de Québec was able to confirm Newspaper that 10 employees are infected with COVID-19 in a “hot zone” on the 2nd floor where patients with viral infection are treated following an outbreak that began on September 28.

It is not known for the moment how the transmission took place; if it was made from a patient to a caregiver, or if an employee could have contaminated his colleagues, for example, explains Jean-Thomas Grantham, from the communications department of the hospital center.

In addition, a second outbreak began a few days ago in a short-term geriatric unit on the 4th floor. In this case, 12 patients are infected with the coronavirus. This is a sector administered by the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale.

“Under control”

The CHU de Québec considers that the situation is “under control” because the contacts of the positive cases have been removed from their environment and there is no sign of spread to other units of the hospital.

“In the majority of outbreaks, often it’s multifactorial. We are in an epidemiological investigation to find out what happened, ”says Grantham.

It is not in the organization’s plans, for the moment, to carry out a massive screening at the Enfant-Jésus hospital, a complex located in the Maizerets sector in Limoilou.

“We assess each situation and we screen our employees when required,” says Grantham.

In the five hospitals of the CHU de Québec, 36 employees are not available, because they had to be placed in isolation for various reasons, related or not to these two outbreaks.

Other affected hospitals

The coronavirus has made its way into several healthcare settings in the greater Quebec City area recently.

In Sainte-Foy, an outbreak forced the withdrawal of 47 employees due to a positive result at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec (IUCPQ).

A complex massive screening operation should make it possible to test all the workers and users of the IUCPQ on Monday and Tuesday in order to establish the epidemiological situation in all the clinical sectors of the establishment.

In Chaudière-Appalaches, an outbreak of coronavirus at Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis affects 17 users, 21 workers and was associated with two deaths, according to a report presented on Friday by the CISSS.

Outbreaks also affect the Thetford Mines hospital (less than 5 active cases among users and workers) and at Saint-Georges hospital (6 active cases among users and 5 active cases among workers).