The COVID-19 outbreak at Midland’s Georgian Bay General Hospital now includes 19 positive cases.

On Dec. 8, hospital officials announced an additional three staff members and one patient had tested positive for the virus, bringing the total at GBGH to 16 staff members and three patients.

Hospital staff, in consultation with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, have been conducting extensive contact tracing. If someone received care at GBGH between Nov. 23 and Dec. 4 and were in contact with a patient or staff member who has tested positive for COVID-19, their names have been identified through contact tracing and they’ve been contacted.

GBGH continues to test staff to identify any positive cases. All inpatients have been tested and all new patient admissions to the hospital are being tested.

“Over the past four days, the hospital has tested more than 520 credentialed staff,” said Dr. Dan Lee, COVID medical lead and chief of Emergency Medicine at GBGH. “As more testing tends to net more positive results, we do expect the potential to see an increase in positives, similar to when testing increases in the community and more positive cases are detected.”

The Midland COVID-19 Assessment Centre has also seen an increase in positive cases, with four new confirmed community cases reported on Dec. 7 and another four reported on Dec. 8. These eight cases are not related to the outbreak at GBGH. 

Anyone in the community experiencing symptoms should seek COVID-19 testing at the Midland COVID-19 Assessment Centre, located in the GBGH parking lot, by or by calling .