COVID-19 numbers have hit a plateau in the Kingston region: experts

Kingston’s COVID-19 numbers have hit a plateau and hospitalization rates are expected to trend downwards in May, according to the medical director of infection prevention and control at Kingston General Hospital and Hotel Dieu Hospital.

“We’re having less cases per capita so all the things are pointing to real stability, to what we’re hoping in the next week or so (is) a real downturn in numbers,” said Dr. Gerald Evans, who has been following COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.

Evans says the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the KFL&A region remains high but the numbers are stable.

“We have a fair stability of numbers. The test positivity is really not changing a lot, it’s not going down but it’s also not rising a lot higher,” said Evans.

According to Evans, the test positivity rate is between 18 and 20 per cent in the Kingston region. The province is at about 15 to 16 per cent.

Data is being collected in Kingston’s wastewater and the wastewater co-director with Queen’s University, Stephen Brown, says COVID-19 numbers moved from east to west.

“We noticed the wastewater numbers went up in the central and eastern part of Kingston first, and then a little while later it caught up in the west end of the city and then Amherstview, even further west that we track, caught up after that,” said Brown.

“Numbers have stabilized, they’re not going down but they’re stabilized at the current high levels.”

Despite the stabilization, COVID-19 cases are still leading to staff shortages in a variety of sectors.

The Wolf Island Ferry was out of service for five hours Sunday afternoon because of crew shortages due to the virus and Evans says staff shortages are also still being felt at the Kingston General Hospital.

“We still have a number of people who are off not because they themselves had COVID but because somebody in their household had COVID,” said Evans.

Both Evans and Brown say the science is pointing to a downturn in the infection rate in the next few weeks as we transition into warmer weather.