2 new cases of COVID-19 admitted to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre

A short-lived victory for the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, asthere were no active cases of COVID-19 in the facility Tuesday, but two patients were admitted on Wednesday with confirmed cases of the virus.

"Both individuals are stable, both have required admission to the hospital," said Dr. Stewart Kennedy, who heads up the hospital's COVID-19 response, said in a video update.

He compared the past few daysto being on a rollercoaster.

Kennedy said after the two people were admitted and tested positive for the virus, a number of staff members had to be sent home, as part of the hospital's precautions.

He did not say how many staff would be off work,or for how long.

"The way this virus acts, sometimes people come in with no symptoms, or sometimes very low amount of a symptoms, that testing is not done as a priority, and then we expose some of our staff to a positive COVID-19 patient."

Kennedy said affected staff would be tested for the virus, as well as any other people they may have had contact with.

He said at this time, the hospital still has limited testing capacity, so only patients who are in the facility for surgery or an aerosol procedure are tested.

Kennedy also said asymptomatic patients are not all tested as the predictability of the test is not accurate enough, resulting in false negatives.

"You don't know how big the viral is, and you get a false sense of security."

Kennedy said once the hospital can ramp up its testing capacity, which he has said for a number of weeks, the hospital will be able to test more patients for the virus.