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SYDNEY, N.S. — More than two dozen Cape Breton Regional Hospital nurses have been told to self-isolate after coming in contact with a patient with COVID-19.

Multiple sources inside the hospital, who spoke to the Cape Breton Post on the condition of anonymity, said there are 31 nurses from one ward currently self-isolating, as well as three doctors and three respiratory therapists who also came in contact with the patient.

The patient is believed to have been the 70-year-old woman who died Monday night due to complications caused by COVID-19.

The woman was a resident of a long-term health-care facility and was admitted to a non-COVID 19 ward in a private room and tested for the disease.

The sources say the test came back negative and the woman was left on that ward. A second test was ordered after the woman didn’t respond to treatment. This one came back positive.

When asked for an interview about this, Nova Scotia Health Authority spokesperson Brendan Elliott said they would not do one but provided a written statement.

In it, Elliott said they would not confirm the woman’s first COVID-19 test came back negative, citing patient confidentiality.

However, Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Strang confirmed this was the case when asked about it during the April 8 daily press conference about COVID-19. He also said he understood the second test was ordered because the woman’s condition wasn’t improving.

Family members of residents at the Northside Community Guest Home, who asked not to be named, told the Cape Breton Post they were called by facility administration Tuesday afternoon confirming the woman was a resident there, her diagnosis and her cause of death. Attempts to reach someone at the guest home to confirm this were unsuccessful.

The family members said they were told by nursing home staff the woman was taken to hospital on March 31. The family members have been asking the administration if their loved ones were in the same wing as the woman and if all residents were being tested. So far, they haven’t received responses to their inquiries.

A source close to a health professional working at Cape Breton Regional Hospital reached out to the Post to voice their concerns over staff safety. Asking not to be named as it could affect the person they are close to, the source questioned why tests done at the hospital are still being sent to Halifax instead of locally, which would produce results faster.

“Testing results could be done here, but they don't have the machine to do the testing. Our system again being neglected,” said the source close to the health-care professional.

“If there is all this money being handed out for companies should we not invest in having up-to-date testing faculties province-wide? This is the whole problem with centralized health care. We put undue risk to the employees and families of these people because of short-sighted policies."

The Cape Breton Regional Hospital is shown in this file photo. NANCY KING/CAPE BRETON POST

Currently, it takes two days to get test results back in Cape Breton.

Sources at the hospital say staff are now mandated to wear face masks at all times when dealing with patients and take their temperature twice a day, since the woman’s death.

NSHA spokesperson Elliott said the plans to have staff wearing masks and take temperatures was something they had been planning.

“NSHA’s action earlier this week to direct universal masking of our front line workers was planned and enacted in a unified provincial process, and represents only the most recent change to an evolving strategy,” he said. “These changes occur under guidance at provincial levels, with advance preparatory work to be able to respond as this epidemic evolves.”

When asked to confirm the number of hospital staff who are self-isolating due to the potential exposure to COVID-19 by the patient, Elliott declined to answer.

He did say they have an Occupational Healthy and Safety plan in place when employees are potentially exposed to the virus, which includes “detailed contact tracing to determine their level of contact with other staff and physicians.”

“As a result of these processes, a number of staff have been advised to self-isolate and have undergone testing,” he said. “We have issued public advisories in cases where we need assistance in reaching potential contacts who may have been exposed to the virus.”

Elliott was able to confirm the number of NSHA health-care staff in the province who have tested positive for COVID-19. As of Monday, these numbers were: two in Eastern zone (which includes Cape Breton), seven in Central zone, one in Northern zone and none in Western zone

The NSHA spokesperson also said there are a number of reasons staff are asked to self-isolate. These include returning from travel, being in close contact with someone with COVID-19 (non-work related) who is asymptomatic and high/medium risk of coming in contact with someone with COVID-19 while working who is asymptomatic.

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