The Tribune

A WARD at Princess Margaret Hospital has been closed to the public and will be sanitised after a patient there tested positive for COVID-19, officials said.

According to the Public Hospitals Authority, a patient in Medical Surgical Ward II tested positive for the highly contagious disease.

As a result, PMH has implemented the following measures: there will be no further admissions to the ward in question until further notice; all remaining patients on the ward have been tested for COVID-19; contact tracing has begun for people who were previously discharged from the ward by the Ministry of Health’s Disease Surveillance Unit; and PHA has begun exposure assessment for all employees who had direct contact with the confirmed case.

When contacted for comment, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said the situation will have an impact on healthcare delivery at the public hospital.

“We take infection prevention and control seriously,” Dr Sands said. “COVID-19 has changed life as we know it. It has and will have an impact on healthcare delivery in many ways. . .some of them negative. But we must sanitise the ward and make sure that it is safe.”

He said he does not anticipate ward sanitising to take more than a day.

Officials did not say how many people were on the ward with the COVID-19 patient or how many people had been in contact with the person.

Earlier this month, Doctors Hospital temporarily closed its Collins Avenue facility for cleaning after suspected COVID-19 exposure there.