Halton Region has increased the types of COVID-19 outbreaks settings it is reporting in its daily updates. The new COVID-19 outbreak settings include childcare, congregate living, institutional, school, and workplace/community. This change has increased the number of recorded outbreaks in Oakville and Halton to 10 and 40 respectively.
Outbreak setting definitions
Childcare: childcare settings including licensed and non-licensed daycares
Congregate living: group homes, supportive housing, prisons, and other settings where individuals live together
Institutional: long-term care homes, retirement homes, and hospitals
School: private and publicly funded elementary and secondary schools
Workplace/Community:
- Private social gatherings such as private homes or private settings
- Sports and Fitness: team sports, athletic activities, fitness facilities
- Workplace: non-institutional settings such as offices, warehouses, factories, farms, restaurants, stores where the cases are limited to staff
Outbreaks will only be counted once in each category, even though some outbreaks in a workplace category may include sports & fitness, food & beverage services or retail. They will be categorized as workplace if cases are only known to have occurred among staff members.
Institutional and congregate living outbreaks will record cases according to the infected person’s role: staff member, facility resident, non-Halton (typically a staff person who resides outside Halton), and role not specified (information not recorded yet).
Non-Halton cases will not be reported in any other section of the Halton COVID-19 reports such as total cases or deaths.
The region will only provide the name of setting locations for institutional and school outbreaks. The names of other outbreak setting locations will not be provided for privacy reasons, and to avoid discouraging businesses from reporting outbreaks. Halton Region Public Health notifies close contacts of outbreak cases and would only release the names of affected locations only if they are unable to trace all the at risk individuals.