As part of the City’s ongoing efforts to reduce COVID-19 spread, Toronto Public Health (TPH) is pleased to announce a new pilot partnership with Michael Garron Hospital and the University Health Network’s, Toronto Western Hospital. This pilot will enable enhanced collaboration and information sharing between these health system partners to identify and contact COVID-19 cases faster, thereby reducing virus spread in Toronto.
Through this unique collaboration, these health system partners are testing a process to share positive COVID-19 lab results directly from the Assessment Centres to Toronto Public Health. Accessing results directly from assessment centres will help TPH identify and isolate people who test positive for COVID-19 and their close contacts, sooner. This case and contact management work is critical to reduce virus spread as Toronto moves forward with reopening the city.
The City’s COVID-19 monitoring dashboard summarizes the current local situation using a core set of indicators that align with Ontario’s provincial framework for reopening, including virus spread and containment. More information on COVID-19 data can be found on the City’s reporting platform.
Quotes:
“This partnership between Toronto Public Health, Michael Garron Hospital and the Toronto Western Hospital is a good example of how the City can work with partners in the community to fight COVID-19. I have said many times that fighting this virus is an all hands on deck effort and that is demonstrated by this new partnership. This will help further speed up efforts across the health system to track the virus in our community so that we can move quickly to stop the spread and keep our residents safe.”
– Mayor John Tory
“Case and contact tracing is the investigative work that’s central to stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our city. The faster public health units can access test results, the quicker they will be able to trace contacts and isolate cases. This collaborative work will new approaches to help track the virus and limit transmission.”
– Councillor Joe Cressy, Chair Toronto Board of Health, Ward 10 Spadina-Fort York
“I am pleased to share news of this pilot partnership. I sincerely thank the Michael Garron Hospital and the Toronto Western Hospital assessment centres for their commitment to our COVID-19 response. I look forward to our continued collaboration with our healthcare partners and keeping our city updated on our progress as we move forward.”
– Dr. Eileen de Villa, Medical Officer of Health
“Working in collaboration with Toronto Public Health we’re aiming to reduce the time from when we are notified about a positive result at our assessment centre to when public health is aware of that result. Essentially, with the new process they know as soon as we do. It is important we continue to develop lab capacity and IT infrastructure to securely and seamless transfer COVID results across the system to allow for downstream case management, contact tracing and support.”
– Dr. Jeff Powis, Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control, Michael Garron Hospital
“The UHN COVID Assessment Centre, located at Toronto Western Hospital, has been working together with Toronto Public Health to pilot innovative and efficient ways to expedite contact tracing of individuals who have tested positive for COVID. These collaborations and partnerships between acute care and Public Health will, in my opinion, create more nimble and effective ways to locate and inform contacts.”
– Dr. Camille Lemieux, Chief of Family Medicine, University Health Network (UHN) and Medical Lead for the UHN COVID-19 Assessment Centre
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