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Eight COVID-19 cases at St. James Town grocery store in week

The Food Basics grocery store in St. James Town has recorded eight positive tests for COVID-19 among its staff over the past six days.

The latest was announced today as the Food Basics’ parent company, Metro, reported a single case.

However, this follows reports of positive tests of staff on three previous days, dating back to less than a week earlier. On two of those days, three cases were uncovered.

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The numbers are sufficient to declare this a possible outbreak, though the source of the infections has not been revealed.

An “outbreak” is variously defined by health officials. Ontario’s COVID-19 website considers the criteria to be two cases within 14 days when the victims might reasonably have been infected in the workplace.

The cases recently reported at the Food Basics store are:

  • March 11 — one positive test reported, last day worked was March 6.
  • March 13 — three positive tests, last days worked were March 11 (two) and 12.
  • March 15 — three positive tests, last days worked were March 7 and 13 (two employees).
  • March 16 — one positive test reported, last day worked was March 14.

These were the first reports of COVID-19 at the Food Basics store in St. James Town this year, as Metro listed no cases for that location in either January or February, according to its reporting website.