The Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU) is reporting an outbreak of COVID-19 at Valard Construction’s East-West Tie Project camp located in Marathon.

The health unit says five people have been identified as having COVID-19 in recent days. All close contacts of the cases that have been identified are self-isolating.

TBDHU is working with Valard Construction to assess the exposure risk to other workers as well as identifying and following up on any contacts outside the site. Valard Construction has already undertaken many measures to reduce any spread of the virus at the site and further measures will be taken as needed to manage this situation.

“Individuals identified as close contacts will be contacted directly by a public health nurse and provided instructions about what they need to do,” says a release from TBDHU. “At this time, anyone who is not specifically contacted by public health, would be considered at low risk. If as the investigation unfolds additional close contacts are identified they will be contacted directly by a public health nurse.”

The East-West Tie Project is a 230-kilometre, double-circuit transmission line that runs from the Wawa Transformer Station to the Lakehead station in the Municipality of Shuniah, near Thunder Bay—a distance of approximately 450 kilometres.

Construction of the project began in September 2019 and is expected to be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

The project, which is valued at $777 million, is one of the largest investments into the Northwest’s electricity system in decades.