An outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus has been declared in one of Homewood Health Centre's programs after three people tested positive for the virus.

According to a statement sent to the Mercury Tribune, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health declared the outbreak Wednesday afternoon in the facility's addiction medicine service unit. All three -- two staff members and one patient -- are now self-isolating at home.

In an email to the Mercury Tribune, Public Health spokesperson Chuck Ferguson confirmed the cases are linked.

"In order to limit the risk of exposure to our patients and staff, we have taken a number of measures over the last few weeks," the statement reads.

"We have mandatory, active screening stations at all our entrances for staff, patients, volunteers and vendors to ensure everyone entering our facility is in good health and not registering a fever. We are screening new patients several times before they are admitted -- including a wellness screen at admission -- and are carefully monitoring the health and wellness of all our patients at the Homewood Health Centre."

The statement adds that Homewood sprayed the facility with "a high quality, antimicrobial disinfectant last week, including all common areas and patient rooms, and our staff are trained in infection control and prevention methods."

This would be the latest group of cases to hit Delhi Street in the past week, with Guelph General Hospital announcing March 26 that an outbreak of the coronavirus had been declared in the acute medical wing of the hospital.

Currently, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is reporting 25 confirmed diagnoses in Guelph, and 47 across the agency’s jurisdiction.

More to come