MONTREAL — Health officials in Ontario and Quebec are working to limit gatherings and outbreaks, including one at a cycling studio in Hamilton that has now been linked to 69 cases of COVID-19.
A spokeswoman for the Hamilton public health unit said there are currently 46 primary and 23 secondary cases linked to an outbreak at SPINCO that began Oct. 5.
Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health said today that the province may need to consider new guidelines for these types of facilities since it appears the cycling studio followed the rules in place.
Elsewhere in the province, public health officials in an Indigenous community in southwestern Ontario say they are in crisis mode after a spike in COVID-19 cases associated with private gatherings.
A statement from the band council of the Six Nations of the Grand River says there are now 14 active and 33 probable cases in the community, up from five confirmed and two probable cases it reported on its website last Friday.
Meanwhile in Quebec, police and regional health officials are investigating after hundreds of people gathered in a synagogue north of Montreal over the weekend in an event that spilled into the streets and had to be broken up by police.
The regional health authority that covers the Boisbriand area says it is working with local leaders to limit the impacts of the gathering and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Quebec reported 1,203 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, including 844 from the past 24 hours and 359 cases that were added to previous daily totals following what officials described as a technical problem with its computer system.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2020
The Canadian Press
