Interior Health says there’s “strong evidence” an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Royal Inland Hospital expansion project came from the Lower Mainland or Alberta.

Medical health officer Dr. Carol Fenton tells NL News both regions have supplied workers to the site.

An outbreak was declared on Friday, after cases started to spread among work crews. Seven cases were reported as of Friday, and Fenton says that has not changed.

“So the seven cases we are reporting are of the cases we have seen in IH residents. We do know there are additional cases from workers who came from outside of IH, but we don’t know those numbers. But for the IH numbers, we have not had any additional cases over the weekend.”

Fenton reassures there has not been any interaction between construction workers and people who have been inside the hospital building itself.

She says construction is continuing on pace for the new patient care tower, which, at $417 million, is the largest construction project in the city’s history.