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False alarm as COVID-19 case mistakenly reported at Nanaimo mall

A name mix-up led Nanaimo’s Woodgrove Centre administration to mistakenly announce that a store employee had tested positive for COVID-19. That turned out to be incorrect, Heather Fisk, Woodgrove’s marketing manager, said Thursday.
Woodgrove Centre mall in Nanaimo
Woodgrove Centre mall in Nanaimo

A name mix-up led Nanaimo’s Woodgrove Centre administration to mistakenly announce that a store employee had tested positive for COVID-19.

That turned out to be incorrect, Heather Fisk, Woodgrove’s marketing manager, said Thursday. “We found out we were misinformed about the location of the confirmed case. It was actually at a centre on the mainland.” Fisk could not confirm the name of the other centre.

Incorrect information was passed on to Woodgrove, an Ivanhoe Cambridge property, Fisk said.

“Our business continuity team and our [human resources] gets notified of a confirmed case and they tell the centre,” she said. “They were given the wrong information, so that trickled down to us.”

Woodgrove’s approximate 140 tenants were contacted on Tuesday, Fisk said. They were told there was a confirmed case at the mall and the individual was in quarantine.

The store where the employee was said to have worked had gone through a deep clean and the centre itself was also deep-cleaned early Tuesday prior to opening, she said.

“We weren’t going to take any chances on it, of course,” Fisk said. “You have to be proactive and make sure the cleaning was done.”

On Wednesday, a revised notice was sent out to correct the mistake.

The situation is a reminder that the pandemic is continuing and to make sure everyone is following health and safety protocols, Fisk said.

cjwilson@timescolonist.com