Medical officer of health says KFL&A is ‘brilliant’ at following COVID-19 guidelines

Dr. Kieran Moore spent some time praising his community Friday afternoon, just an hour after announcing that the Kingston region would be reverting back into the green for the community’s COVID-19 status.

“Our community continues to make the sacrifices necessary to limit the spread of this virus. I think they’re brilliant,” Moore said in a press briefing.

Although KFL&A Public Health announced two new cases in the region Friday, two more cases resolved, keeping the region’s total active cases at six. A total of 176 people have tested positive in the region since the beginning of the pandemic, with 170 recovered, and no deaths.

Moore noted that all of the region’s recent active cases have been related to travel outside the region, which pointed to little or no community spread.

“Our understanding of our data is, really, you have to travel outside our region to get the virus,” Moore said.

Although the region saw a bump in cases since Sept. 1 — 64 cases in total — Moore said cases have once again started to slow, which prompted public health to change the region’s COVID-19 status from yellow to green on Friday.

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“The green community status level indicates that active positive cases are rare, no active outbreaks, local hospital capacity, quick case and contact follow-up, and full testing capacity,” a public health news release said Thursday.

Moore attributed the dip in cases to the community’s adherence to public health’s suggestions. Evidence of that adherence could be seen in the days following the Thanksgiving long weekend.

Public health had previously reported modelling that showed Thanksgiving had the potential to bring up to 100 cases to the region by Oct. 25. But, according to KFL&A’s COVID-19 dashboard, there have only been nine new cases recorded since Thanksgiving Monday.

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Moore said the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington region continues to test about 400 people a day. Despite the continued testing, the Kingston region’s per cent positivity rate is, as of Friday, 0.13 per cent, whereas Ontario’s is ten times the local rate, at 2.3 per cent.

“We have one of the lowest per cent positivity testing rates in the province, which I think all of our community should be proud of,” Moore said.

He also noted Kingston’s infection rates — about 1.9 cases per 100,000 people per week — pale in comparison to its two largest neighbouring municipalities, with Toronto recording well over 50 cases per 100,000 and Ottawa’s 74 cases per 100,000, according to Moore.

The medical officer of health lauded the community for these statistics, calling them evidence of the region’s dedication to keeping themselves and others safe.

“I do think we’ve got a wonderful community. They do follow rules. They are observing best practices of physical distancing, good hand hygiene, staying home if you’re sick, getting tested. They are listening to the premier as well.”