As January 2020 rolled in and the first reports of COVID-19 started circulating from abroad, hospitals across Canada started planning, knowing it was just a matter of time before this new and highly contagious coronavirus arrived on their doorsteps.

On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the novel coronavirus was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. At the time there were fewer than 100 cases of the disease we now call COVID-19. Just a week earlier, we had issued our first communication to staff introducing the coronavirus, and preparations at MAHC were well underway when the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11.  Read more…