Privacy breach and COVID-19 case reported by health unit

The North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit reports there are now 25 cases of COVID-19 in the district.

The latest case involves a female, 19 or younger.

She is self isolating.

The virus was acquired through community transmission.

According to the Health Unit website the last five COVID-19 cases in the district were acquired through community transmission.

Another case has been resolved bringing the total to 19.

Five are isolating and there’s been one death.

Meantime, the Health Unit has announced there was a privacy breach involving their online COVID-19 dashboard.

It contained information related to the number of COVID-19 tests and confirmed cases.

In a release, the Health Unit says inadvertently, personal identifying information was made accessible through the dashboard.

The dashboard has been removed from the website and the incident has been reported to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jim Chirico says the breach affects those individuals whose permanent address is in the Health Unit district and were tested for COVID-19 on or before May 8th.

The health unit says the likelihood of someone else having accessed the information is quite low, because it was not immediately visible and accessing it required a number of steps that were not obvious.

The information that was accidentally made accessible was first and last name, municipality, unique identifying number but not OHIP number, testing date and location, and the test result (if available).

It may also have included a telephone number but no other health, financial or personal information was accessible through the dashboard.

For more information on the breach go to www.myhealthunit.ca/dashboardbreach