A Durham region doctor who worked at two long-term care homes has lost her job after being charged in connection to allegedly misleading contact tracers.
Durham Region Chair John Henry tells NEWSTALK 1010 he was "incredibly disappointed" when he learned of the charges against Dr. Martina Weir and her husband.
"I was shocked when the story first came out that the U.K. strain was in Durham region," Henry said. "It was sort of looked at as isolated, and then as the story unfolded and the truth came out, it was shocking and incredibly disappointing."
Weir worked at two retirement homes in the Whitby and Oshawa communities, and Henry says as of Jan. 20 her contract with the region has been terminated.
Charges against the Weirs were made public on Jan. 19, and each are facing two counts of "failing to provide accurate information on all persons that the defendant may have had contact with during their period of communicability for COVID-19," and one count each of obstruction "by providing false information to the Durham Region Associate Medical Officer of Health in relation to contact tracing involving the U.K. variant strain of COVID-19," according to our media partner CTV News.
The Weirs accounted for the first two known cases of the variant in Ontario in December. Provincial health officials originally stated the couple had no known exposure to the virus, but officials later found out they had recently been in close contact with someone who had travelled to Canada from the U.K. The allegation is that the couple did not disclose that to contact tracers.
Henry says the doctor did go into work on Jan. 18 and 19, but there has been no reported risk to any patients at either of the homes.
"We're trying to hold people to a higher account," Henry said. "For us, it's incredibly important that our residents know that we do our absolute best to protect our vulnerable people in our long-term care. So I was incredibly disappointed when I found out on (January) 20th, and at the same time we have terminated the contract that she was working with us."
The charges against the couple are just allegations and have not been proven in court.