Specimens to be tested for COVID-19 are seen at LifeLabs after being logged upon receipt at the company's lab, in Surrey, B.C., on March 26, 2020. A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared in the nephrology unit of Surrey Memorial Hospital, B.C. Fraser Health's interim chief medical health officer says a patient tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Republished September 02, 2020 - 4:10 PM
Original Publication Date September 02, 2020 - 2:16 PM
VANCOUVER - A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared in the nephrology unit at a hospital in Surrey, B.C.
Fraser Health's interim chief medical health officer says a patient tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.
Dr. Elizabeth Brodkin says the unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital has fewer than a dozen patients, and staff are being monitored and screened.
She says the nephrology unit is closed to new patients and it is not expecting visitors.
Brodkin says an outbreak is defined as a transmission at a hospital site.
The new outbreak comes as B.C.'s health minister and provincial health officer announced 104 new cases of the novel coronavirus across the province, bringing the total number of cases to 5,952.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Bonnie Henry say in a joint statement that as schools reopen, people need to get "back to the basics" of COVID-19 safety measures.
They say that 33 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, 14 of them in intensive care.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2020