On Wednesday, Queen’s added an additional 193 cases to its COVID-19 tracker for the week of December 13th to the 19th. There are now almost 500 cases connected to the outbreak at Queen’s University.
In addition to an outbreak at 5 student residences, KFL&A Public Health confirmed that there has been an additional outbreak at the Gordon-Brockington House student residence. There are currently 6 active cases associated with the outbreak.
Queen’s University and Public Health Officials across the country acknowledged this week that a large number of the cases are linked to a varsity sports outbreak that began on December 8th.
Officials are now linking the outbreak to a wider outbreak within universities across the country.
On Tuesday, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters that there had been an outbreak of COVID-19 cases at the University of Victoria. The cases involved both Omicron and Delta variants.
At the same time, Dr. Henry said “The introduction of Omicron (was) related to a rugby tournament, which sadly has spread Omicron to university communities across the country.” The tournament was hosted between November 24th and 28th.
On the same day, Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s top doctor said that “there is a possibility” the Dalhousie University’s men’s rugby team may have brought the COVID-19 variant to the province.
In response, Queen’s University issued the following statement: “The health and safety of our community is our foremost concern, and we have seen rising cases of COVID-19 within our student population. KFL&A Public Health does all contact tracing and has initiated tests with several suspected cases to confirm if any are the Omicron variant that has been identified in the KFL&A region.”The university further added that it supports public health’s efforts to limit any spread that is identified and “recently introduced enhanced precautions to our already rigorous protocols that are in place to keep our community safe.” They also say that they suspended all varsity activities once an outbreak had been declared.
