Ontario nurses are now being told to self-isolate upon returning from travel, after the government initially told them to come into work as long as they didn't feel sick.

The change came during a news conference Wednesday afternoon when Minister of Health Christine Elliott was asked why nurses were being told to come into work, despite having recently returned from vacation.

"They will be asked to self-isolate if they've travelled. We know that it's especially important for frontline health care workers because they're dealing with patients, some of whom have COVID-19, some of whom have other more compromised conditions such as cancer," said Elliott.

Earlier Wednesday, Elliott had told CBC Radio's Metro Morning, "We need all of our health professionals that are possibly available to be there," for COVID-19, and those who have travelled need to "go through the self assessment procedure and be tested if they have any symptoms."

Elliott's office says the change in directive for nurses to self-isolate upon returning to Canada came later in the day, after the province's command table consulted with health system partners.

Province changes tone in a day

In an internal email obtained by CBC Toronto, nurses working at St Michael's Hospital and St. Joseph's Health Centre were informed they'd have to "come to work after travel[ling] outside of the country unless [they] have symptoms."

Nurses in the Halton region and Kitchener-Waterloo area say they were given the same directive.

One nurse with more than a decade of experience said she first saw colleagues come into work on the weekend, immediately after ending their vacations. The nurse, whose identity CBC Toronto is not revealing because she fears for her job, says she knows of at least two cases.

"We were concerned that these people were potentially coming back, not isolating themselves and exposing all of our patients, our patients' visitors and our staff to a disease they might not even know they have yet," said the Toronto-area nurse.

The Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) says it was contacted by its members about the issue late last week.

"That was quite a concern," said Vicki McKenna, president of the ONA.

"I wrote to Minister Elliott about this... We're glad that the new decision has been made."

College calling in back up

To help prepare for COVID-19 and ramp up frontline staff, the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) says it's reaching out to retired workers, asking if they want to reinstate their membership.

"CNO is expediting its membership reinstatement process to allow currently non-practicing nurses to be registered," explained a spokesperson for the CNO in an email.