Submitted by the HKPR Health Unit

The Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit confirmed on March 13 the first positive case of COVID-19 in the region. The affected individual is a woman in her 60s who is a resident of Northumberland County.

The individual was seen at the Northumberland Hills Hospital on Wednesday March 11 after presenting with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection and travel to Spain and Portugal . The woman had travelled on Air Transat flight 337 from Lisbon Portugal to Toronto on March 6 2020.

The patient was discharged home and remains in self-isolation with follow up from the HKPR District Health Unit. Health Unit nurses have been in contact with the woman and are working with her to identify anyone she may have been in contact with while ill as well as any passengers on that flight who were seated near the woman. If anyone who travelled on Air Transat 337 on that date develops symptoms they are asked to call their local public health unit.

“We have been working very closely with our hospitals and health care providers in anticipation of a local case and pre-emptive measures were in place for this type of situation” says Dr. Lynn Noseworthy medical officer of health for the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit. “Staff at NHH had the appropriate measures in place to isolate this woman when she came into the emergency department and there was no risk to anyone else at the hospital at that time.”

With a local case Dr. Noseworthy says it’s important for people to remember the following to help stop the spread of illness: