Windsor Regional Hospital is reporting its fourth active COVID-19 outbreak.
Last week the hospital confirmed 21 patients and 22 staff members tested positive in various units at Met and Ouellette campuses. Officials declared another outbreak in a sixth floor unit at Met Campus Tuesday with four more patients testing positive for COVID-19.
Director of Infection Prevention Erika Vitale says staff are treating all patients as though they have the virus in an effort to stop the spread, but containing a highly contagious virus with 57 COVID-19 patients in hospital is a challenge.
"A lot of the transmission that's happened related to hospitals is related to how many cases we actually have," she says. "With any other infectious disease we never have this number in hospital at one time."
Vitale says patients are being tested when they arrive at the hospital and after five days, but it's still hard to determine the source of the infection.
"That patient that's been with us for more than 14-days that's tested positive now, that would be a very clear hospital acquired case," she says. "When we're initially following up with that one case that tests positive on day five, that's where we're ... was this case community acquired or was this picked up with us in hospital?"
Increased testing continues to be the hospitals best line of defence, according to Vitale.
"I believe because we're doing more testing we're actually detecting these outbreaks early on and we're able to follow up early on," she says. "When someone tests positive on day five we make sure that we're testing the roommate that they've had and we also always offer to staff that they can get tested at any point."
Vitale says the hospital has done everything it can, but it will be difficult to ensure zero spread until vaccinations hit their peak, and new treatments become available.
She tells AM800 News regular audits continue to ensure best practices are being followed throughout the hospital.