Northern Health declared an outbreak at the rehabilitation unit at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia on Tuesday after a patient at the unit tested positive for COVID-19.
"Monitoring and testing is underway to identify any additional cases, and at this point there is no evidence of ongoing transmission on the unit," the agency said in a statement.
Clients recently discharged from the unit are urged to self monitor for the virus and seek testing if symptoms develop.
According to a Northern Health guide, the symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to those of other respiratory infections, including the flu and can include some or all of cough, fever, breathing difficulties, headache, generalized muscle pain and sore throat.
"Some people with the infection will have mild symptoms, or none at all, but they can still spread the virus to others - who might develop more severe symptoms," Northern Health says in the guide. It is the third COVID-19 outbreak declaration for a unit at UHNBC, including one precautionary outbreak that has been declared over.
The previous declarations were for:
- Internal medicine unit, originally declared December 29. To date, 10 patients and 11 staff have tested positive for COVID-19; one patient death has also been associated with this outbreak
- Family medicine unit, originally declared December 3 and ended December 16 after no further cases were identified in association with the original lab-confirmed cases.
