Publicly listing workplaces under outbreaks meant to provide transparency, public health says

Public Health Sudbury and Districts says it wanted to be transparent about COVID-19 outbreaks it was investigating at private work settings.

That's why it began posting details about specific workplace outbreaks three weeks ago.

There are nine specific settings currently listed, but just seven remain active. 

Those include the Sudbury Jail, Vale's Garson mine site, call centre TSYS, Diggs and Dwellings, Centre Pivot du Triangle Magique, which is a day care in Azilda, Jubilee Heritage Daycare on Applegrove, Trillium College, and Health Sciences North. 

"We always notified the public of outbreaks that were declared in schools and institutions," said Jon Groulx, manager, Health Protection division.

"When it was a workplace where the public didn't have access we weren't notifying the public; we were issuing public service announcements when there was potential risk to the general public."

Two or more cases with workplace connection

A workplace outbreak has a different threshold than an outbreak declared at an institution like a long term care home or a hospital. That's because the latter setting involves people who reside there.

"Workplaces require two points of acquisition as the baseline to be declared," Groulx said.

"An institution would declare outbreaks based on one case to really enhance COVID precautions in those settings where the workplace has residents staying at that setting, or living at that setting," he said.

The Sudbury Jail and Health Sciences North, currently listed, would fall into this category.

Starts with contact tracing

Groulx says investigations into workplace outbreaks actually begin during contact tracing of a positive COVID-19 case.

"Where they work is a question that's asked," Groulx said.

"When we see a cluster at a specific workplace that's when we'll do an assessment of the workplace to determine if an outbreak exists and then if we believe that there's two cases that have likely acquired COVID-19 at the workplace, that's the baseline for declaring it into outbreak."

Once an outbreak is declared at a workplace every worker is made aware of it.

"But it's also on our website, so the public has access to all the outbreaks that have been declared in the community," Groulx said.

Working with employer

Then, Public Health Sudbury and Districts provides guidance and recommendations to the workplace on outbreak measures.

"We would issue orders if necessary, we would facilitate testing, we would conduct an on site investigation, and we would review their COVID-19 safety plan."

Every workplace must have a COVID-19 safety plan, and provide it to public health inspectors upon request.

When a workplace includes interaction with the public, like a restaurant for example, they are supposed to keep a list for contact tracing purposes in case of an outbreak.

But Groulx says that doesn't always happen and that's when Public Health Sudbury and Districts issues a public services announcement about possible risk of exposure.

Outbreak declared over

The specific work settings under active outbreak are all managed daily by Public Health Sudbury and Districts. 

"We have public health inspectors working very closely with the workplace itself to manage it and make sure that there's no new cases," Groulx said.

The outbreak is declared over after 14 days with no evidence of further exposure in the workplace.

The post on PHSD's website about the specific workplace, remains there for ten days after the outbreak is declared over.

Groulx says the number of outbreaks in workplaces is a reflection of the cases within the community. 

"There's been an unprecedented surge of cases, not just locally, but in the province," he said.

"We're seeing those cases start to decline in the Sudbury area specifically — thankfully," Groulx said.

"But when you're seeing that kind of case count in the community, there's also going to be workplace spread. It goes hand in hand."