OTTAWA -- Ottawa Public Health is warning customers at the Walmart Pharmacy on Baseline Road in Ottawa's west-end may have been exposed to COVID-19.

The health unit is investigating a person who tested positive for COVID-19, who provided service at the Walmart Pharmacy at 1375 Baseline Road during the contagious period.

All customers who received service from the pharmacy for 15 minutes or more on Aug. 15 and 16 are advised that they may have been exposed to COVID-19.

Ottawa Public Health says customers to the Walmart Pharmacy on Baseline Road during the following time periods may have been exposed to COVID-19:

  • Aug 15, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
  • Aug 16, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Ottawa Public Health says customers should immediately self-isolate and contact Ottawa Public Health by calling 613-580-6744 to determine whether their exposure was high-risk for COVID-19 transmission and if testing is recommended.

"We consider 15 minutes the threshold for possibly significant exposure," said Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa's Medical Officer of Health.

"So, if you're in the Walmart for those periods of time where somebody else was infectious, it's the 15 minutes above that that's required to consider it an exposure. An exposure below that, we wouldn't consider that an exposure."

Customers of the Walmart location who did not receive direct service from the pharmacy or who received services from the pharmacy outside of the periods are not considered at higher risk of exposure.