MONTREAL -- At least one cancer patient is dead as COVID-19 has spread through Sacre-Coeur Hospital.

The hospital has been taking in COVID-19 patients for the past three weeks, mostly from seniors' homes. As of Wednesday morning, the hospital was treating 119 COVID-19 patients.

While they have been isolated in negative-pressure rooms, where the air is filtered 12 times an hour, a growing number of patients in other sections have tested positive, including 19 dialysis patients.

Health Minister Danielle McCann said the hospital has the capacity to treat COVID-19 patients.

“Our hospitals are now organized like this: there's a hospital inside of a hospital,” she said. “There's a hospital for COVID-19 patients and it's hermetically closed. There's no contact with the rest of the hospital.”

However, Sacre-Coeur intensive care unit chief Patrick Bellemare said no system is perfect, especially when it comes to containing a virus that can spread from people who are asymptomatic. He added that's especially the case in 100-year-old hospitals that were not designed for infection control.

“In all hospitals in the world, there has been transmission cases in the healthcare system,” he said. “We know that exists.”