CAMH confirmed Saturday “a unit” is being monitored for a suspected COVID-19 outbreak but is coming under fire for secrecy at a time when it is urging the public to be fully informed about the deadly virus for self-protection.

“We are following rigorous infection prevention and control policies to keep patients and staff safe while we deliver mental health care to those in need,” said a CAMH statement emailed to the Star on Saturday.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health confirmed an email was sent to staff early Friday evening that said the suspected COVID-19 outbreak had prompted the closure of the Forensic Assessment and Triage Unit (3-5) at the psychiatric facility’s Queen Street site.

Mental health lawyer Anita Szigeti shared the email with the Star, which she said had been forwarded to her from several staff sources.

“Toronto Public Health and CAMH Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) have declared a Respiratory Illness Suspect COVID-19 outbreak on the Forensic Assessment Unit,” reads the email sent by CAMH’s public affairs to staff Friday just before 5 p.m.

“As a result, Unit 3-5 is closed to admissions and transfers.”

The medium-secure Forensic Assessment and Triage Unit assesses individuals facing criminal charges to see if they are fit to stand trial and treats those who are unfit, according to CAMH’s website.

Szigeti said the possibility of an outbreak inside CAMH, and particularly that unit, is extremely worrisome, since it is a “nexus to the jails,” where it’s feared COVID could spread like wildfire once inside.

“Not only do the jails who have received people from that unit or sent people onto that unit need to know there is sufficient concern to investigate but both staff and patients on the unit should be told.”

Toronto Public Health refused to comment “in order to protect people’s privacy.”

“We are currently investigating many COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in institutions and facilities in our city because there is community transmission,” Dr. Vinita Dubey, a Toronto Public Health spokesperson and associate medical officer of health, wrote in email Saturday.

Szigeti said she is shocked neither Toronto Public Health nor CAMH will confirm which unit has been locked down, when it is a matter of public health.

“It is not personal health. That is why public health is investigating and that is why presumably public health has ordered the lockdown. Nobody is seeking any personal health information,” she wrote in email Saturday.

Szigeti spoke to two clients on the unit and “neither has been made aware the unit is shut down or that there is any suspicion of COVID.”

Last week, two staff members and two patients — from a unit below 3-5 — tested positive and CAMH has not provided any updates, she said.

She said she’s been asking CAMH for weeks about “what the plan is” should an outbreak happen inside its facilities, particularly in Unit 3-5, where “acutely unwell” people are “the last people left behind,” she said Saturday. She estimates there are 22 to 25 beds.

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“Nobody cares about them,” she said of the people inside Unit 3-5, because of the double stigma of suffering major mental disorders and criminality “so people are afraid of the population as perceived dangerous in the first place.”

Szigeti noted that CAMH on Saturday updated its website to say that as of Monday, no visitors will be allowed on any of its sites. Previously, essential visitors were allowed.