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Middlesex-London Health Unit officials said Tuesday it’s tracing patients and hospital staff with whom the woman was in close contact.

“Our infection prevention and control teams have been working with the individual to understand what happened,” said Neil Johnson, LHSC’s chief business operator. “Our teams are doing the followup with the individual and each one of the contacts.”

LHSC has sent several of the nurse’s colleagues home to self-isolate as a precaution, Johnson said, but couldn’t specifiy how many.

The situation raises serious questions about the province’s advice and LHSC’s policy for handling staff returning from international trips, Murray said.

The nurse had a flu-like symptom on her first day back and reported it to her supervisor, but was not sent home, Murray said.

“She shared the appropriate information (about her symptom). She was told to remain at work. She was not advised that she needed to wear a mask and she continued to work,” Murray said. “It’s not a good situation . . . This nurse did everything she was supposed to do.”

It wasn’t until days later, when she appeared in the emergency room with shortness of breath, that she was sent home to self-isolate, Murray said.

“She insisted on being tested,” he said.

Johnson disputed the assertion the nurse was encouraged to stay at work while experiencing symptoms.

“To my knowledge, that’s not the course of events,” he said. “If somebody had symptoms, we would not be advising them to stay at work.”