An employee at Waterdown’s TD Bank branch has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"We can confirm that a TD colleague has tested positive for COVID-19 at our branch in Waterdown," Carla Hindman, TD’s manager of corporate and public affairs said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

“We are following all guidance from public health authorities, including deep cleaning and are taking other actions that are part of our business continuity and preparedness efforts,” Hindman continued in the statement. “We are working with public health and they will be directly contacting any customers who they believe could be at risk.

“The branch will reopen when public health advises it is safe to do so.”

TD did not indicate when the employee tested positive, or when customers may have been exposed.

Shortly before the Review received confirmation of the positive COVID-19 case in Waterdown, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the City of Hamilton’s medical officer of health, said she couldn’t confirm any cases in Flamborough. The Review reached out to public health after TD confirmed the positive test, but public health was not immediately available for comment.

“Having specific information each day is not useful for everybody, but to have trend information about what’s going on and look at it in the aggregate, is definitely important,” she said. “We also want to be very mindful of the privacy of these individuals.”

In general terms, Richardson said if a business did have an employee test positive, at this point, public health would conduct contact tracing.

“We will get to the point that anyone who is mildly symptomatic, we would just be asking them to stay home and self-isolate,” she said. “We do project, if that curve keeps rising, that we will get to the point where we can’t follow up with every person.”

She said at that point, they would advise people who have had contact with someone who is ill to stay home and monitor their symptoms.

“For now, we are still doing that contact tracing, so we would be in touch with people who have had contact with that case.”

The branch, located in Waterdown's Sobeys plaza, had been closed since March 16. TD said employees at the Waterdown branch will be in self-isolation for a two-week period, and the bank is providing support “to help them through this.”

In the meantime, Hindman said customers can reach out to TD by phone, bank online or through the mobile app.

“As we all continue to respond to this evolving situation,” Hindman said, “we encourage our customers to stay informed about our response at TD.com/covid19 including steps we are taking to help protect colleagues and customers and provide financial assistance to those who need it.”

Richardson said 50 per cent of the public health department’s staff — over 200 — is deployed to the COVID-19 effort. She said public health does not break down cases by community within the city, because there is a great deal of travel between different areas and, as a result the coronavirus can spread quickly.

“Most of us don’t just spend time in one community anymore,” she said, adding that is one reason public health is urging people to stay home and practice social distancing.

She said staff does extensive contact tracing, but said the city has had its first case that cannot be tied to travel overnight on March 16.

“The concern is that we’re entering some new phase with this illness,” she said.