The legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Orillia has officially ended, but its deadly impact is far from over.
The City of Orillia is once again removing the ice from the two-pad arena at Rotary Place after a strain of Legionella was found in a cooling tower at the municipally owned facility at 100 University Ave.
“We were able to obtain a culture sample from one of the 35 cases,” Dr. Charles Gardner, the medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Orillia City Centre.
“With that, we were able to look back at other samples that we had from towers, and we found a match back to the Rotary Place tower,” he added.
Orillia Mayor Steve Clarke says he’s relieved the outbreak has been declared over.
However, shutting down the facility and removing the ice surfaces at Rotary Place is a “huge blow” to hockey players and figure skaters who have already been without ice since Oct. 7, due to issues with a heat exchanger.
“This is even more difficult now as we are beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and are craving the activities that are certainly important for our physical health. More and more through the pandemic, those type of activities are subsequently important for our mental health,” Clarke said.
One person died as a result of the outbreak and dozens more were hospitalized.
The cooling tower at Rotary Place was also the source of a Legionella outbreak in 2019.
