Fraser Health has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at Chilliwack General Hospital.

In a news release emailed at 5:39 p.m. today (January 5), the regional health agency announced that the outbreak has been limited to one unidentified medical unit at the hospital.

The bulletin said one patient has tested positive for COVID-19 and the unit is temporarily closed to admissions, though the rest of the hospital "remains fully operational", including the emergency department.

The agency did not announce that the unit is closed to visitors, however, stating that "Chilliwack General Hospital is working with essential visitors to the affected unit on a case-by-case basis".

The release also did not specify whether or not the one patient who has tested positve has spread the virus to at least one other person, which is the definition of outbreak that Fraser Health uses when reporting on long-term care or assisted-living facilities.

Fraser Health said it is implementing its usual pandemic precautions at the hospital, "including enhanced cleaning as well as contact tracing to protect the health of all staff, medical staff, and patients".

Earlier today, Vancouver Coastal Health announced an outbreak in a medical unit in St. Paul's Hospital's Heart Centre.