There is currently a COVID-19 outbreak in the short-term care ward of the Pontiac Hospital, which the regional health authority announced on Friday morning, holding a virtual press conference on the subject early that afternoon.

As of Monday afternoon, . . .

11 patients and eight employees have tested positive according to the CISSSO, up from nine patients and three employees reported on Friday. The unit resides on the hospital’s second floor and has a total of 37 beds, 33 of which are occupied according to the CISSSO.

On Friday, authorities said that they were conducting extensive screening to understand the scope of the outbreak. They said they were still waiting on the test results of 15 patients and were in the process of testing 150 staff that had recently visited the floor. Infection prevention and control teams were deployed to help manage the outbreak.

During the press conference, regional media heard from Dr. Nicolas Gillot, the CISSSO’s director of professional services and Marie-Ève Cloutier, director of nursing services.

They explained that staff were in the process of establishing an eight-bed COVID unit in the hospital with the possibility of enlarging it, if needed, to 16 beds.

Gillot said that most of the infected had mild symptoms and some had already had their first vaccination, which lowers the risk of complications from the virus.

He said that they would be looking at transferring any patients needing intensive care to the Hull Hospital. CISSSO media relations agent Camille Brochu-Lafrance said in an email Monday that no patients had yet required a transfer to Hull and thus far the hospital had sufficient staff to maintain services.

Cloutier said that “for the moment” they did not foresee the need for mandatory overtime at the facility or the transfer of staff from other facilities, but added that the situation could evolve rapidly as test results were assessed.

The CISSSO is asking that residents limit their visits to the hospital unless in the case of an emergency.

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