Loblaw Companies Limited is reporting three presumptive positive COVID-19 tests in employees at Shoppers Drug Mart stores in Belleville.
According to the company’s website, a team member at the Dundas Street East store tested positive on September 24 and hasn’t worked since September 20.
One employee at each of the North Front Street and Sidney Street locations also reportedly tested positive on September 26, with the North Front Street employee last working on September 22 and the Sidney Street employee last working on September 23.
The company says it is working closely with public health officials and following their guidance to ensure proper notification of close contacts and required cleaning and sanitization of stores.
When asked about those cases, an HPE Public Health it “has a process in place to identify and notify close contacts of any positive cases – through contact tracing and case management. Any individual that has been identified as the close contact of a confirmed positive case will be notified directly”.
The spokesperson went on to say that “in situations where it is not possible to identify or reach all close contacts of a positive case, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health will issue a media release to advise the general public of potential exposure”.
According to the Ministry of Health’s case definition explanation there “based on the evolving situation with COVID-19 there is no longer a Presumptive Confirmed Case definition for surveillance purposes”, but it adds that “some hospital and community laboratories will report positives as preliminary positive during the early phases of implementation and will require confirmatory testing at a reference laboratory (e.g. Public Health Ontario Laboratory or the National Microbiology Laboratory)” before being declared positive.
