With community spread confirmed and case rates hitting historic highs in the KFL&A region, the area’s medical officer of health says there’s still time to turn things around before implementing added COVID-19 restrictions.
“Before going with these broad, much more restrictive measures — that could be capacity restrictions and other measures that we’ve seen in the past — let’s take full advantage of what measures are currently in place and should be working, if again followed diligently,” Dr. Piotr Oglaza said in a media briefing Tuesday evening.
As of Tuesday, active case counts rose to 184, the highest ever seen in the region. Hospitalizations were also at a record high this week, with 10 people in hospital.
Before a press conference Tuesday evening, KFL&A Public Health announced that contact tracers have found evidence of community spread in the region, with clusters of cases popping up with no known origins.
Oglaza said this is the first time the Kingston region has ever been above the province’s previous red zone designation.
Still, the medical officer of health is stopping short of adding in public health restrictions, unlike other health units in Ontario who have done so to curb their surge in cases.
But, he says that will take extra effort from the local community, mostly by staying home when sick, even if symptoms are mild.
“Be mindful that there’s no such thing as just a cold. It may not be just a cold,” he said. He said several people have been going to work or interacting with others while symptomatic because they were only experiencing minor issues like runny noses or headaches.
Now, these two symptoms that had been removed from the province’s list of COVID-19 symptoms have been added back to the local health unit’s list of COVID-19 side effects.
Also on Tuesday, Oglaza asked businesses to double down on screening measures for both employees and patrons, something that is currently required by law under the Stage 3 reopening framework. He noted that people have been going into work while symptomatic, adding to the spread of the disease.
With vaccinations hitting high levels locally — with nearly 87 per cent of locals now with two doses — Oglaza says it’s possible that some people have gotten a bit lax with public health measures.
“We don’t want the public to get complacent because we still do see spread from vaccinated kids, from vaccinated individuals. The risk is significantly lower, but it’s not a zero, it’s not completely eliminated,” he said.
Still, case rates are five and a half times higher among the unvaccinated versus those who have their shots, Oglaza said.
The medical officer of health would not give a timeline or specific numbers that would lead him to implement added restrictions, but said at this point, he does not find them necessary.
Still, he urged the local population to take the current surge in numbers seriously, and to limit their social interactions, but most of all, to pay attention to their symptoms.
“We certainly see from our case contact investigations that a number of individuals may think that they only had mild symptoms, that it’s just a cold and then they continue to engage socially with others, and that’s what leads to spread,” he said.
He did say that community spread is in its early days. He said last week, most cases could be traced back to outbreaks or clusters of associated cases, but through recent contract tracing efforts, several people within the same household would test positive without an obvious link of transmission.
Still, he says all is not lost, especially if community members get more strict with adhering to restrictions already in place.
“This is not really to raise alarms. This is a call to action for everyone in this community,” he said.
Oglaza said that if people go back to basics, like keeping their distance, keeping up masking and isolating, cases can be maintained without added measures.
As for what kind of restrictions would be put in place if the recent surge in cases continued unabated, Oglaza said that will depend on where cases are coming from.
“We’re looking at at at measures that were previously attributed to orange or red or yellow. And that’s examples of things that we could look at reintroducing if these measures were to address the patterns we see in terms of spread,” he said.
Comments