Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Chad Klassen

COVID EXPOSURE

Workers at RIH Patient Care Tower asked not to enter hospital after positive COVID cases

Nov 4, 2020 | 2:13 PM

KAMLOOPS — Following positive COVID-19 tests for a group of workers during construction of the Patient Care Tower, Interior Health is asking any workers who remain on site to avoid entering Royal Inland Hospital, unless in the event of a medical emergency.

In an emailed statement, Interior Health told CFJC Today that “as an abundance of caution, Interior Health medical health officers have asked all workers not to go into the hospital unless they require medical attention while the situation is being monitored.”

In terms of any risk to hospital staff from workers entering the hospital to grab coffee or food, Interior Health notes exposure would have been minimal.

“Quick trips to a coffee shop or cafeteria are unlikely to have created any risk to hospital staff, visitors or patients,” the statement reads. “What we have learned about COVID-19 is that the virus is more likely to be transmitted in close settings where people are together for at least 15 minutes and where layers of protection, such as masks and physical distancing, are not in place.”

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IH says workers who tested positive were in isolation as soon as the first positive case came back. Contact tracing was conducted to determine risk to the public.

There have been anonymous phone calls to the newsroom from workers on site indicating there are additional positive cases, but Interior Health has no new exposures to report.

Phone calls to the construction company Ellis Don have not been returned.