New COVID outbreak at Vancouver General Hospital

An outbreak of COVID-19 has closed another ward at Vancouver General Hospital, while the health authority says outbreak precautions have been lifted in a separate unit.

A statement from Vancouver Coastal Health says two patients have tested positive for COVID-19 on an in-patient unit in the hospital's Jim Pattison Pavilion.

The unit is now closed to all admissions, transfers and most visits, but other hospital facilities, including the emergency ward, remain open.

Another unit, which is also in the Jim Pattison Pavilion, remains closed after an outbreak there last month.

But the health authority says a similar outbreak on a separate unit has ended and restrictions there are lifted.

The only other hospital in the health authority that is reporting an outbreak is UBC Hospital, where cases of the virus have been confirmed in the Koerner Pavilion.

Elsewhere across the Lower Mainland, Fraser Health says outbreaks continue in units at Mission, Surrey and Chilliwack hospitals, as well as Eagle Ridge Hospital in Port Moody and Ridge Meadows Hospital in Maple Ridge.

The virus was confirmed in a unit at the Maple Ridge facility last Wednesday, but emergency rooms at all five hospitals remain open.