High numbers of COVID-19 in the province, the spread of variants of concern and outbreaks in Simcoe-Muskoka has Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner approaching the re-opening of the province with caution.
He said he would prefer to remain in lockdown a while longer to see case counts come down a bit more and assess the effect of returning to school. Even if the stay-at-home order is lifted on Tuesday as expected, Gardner said he will continue to advocate for limiting interactions and travel.
It is not yet known what colour zone identified in the province’s framework for re-opening Simcoe-Muskoka will be in when the lockdown is lifted.
“The province is moving in the direction of making this change and I think they need to be ready to move right back again, back into shutdown and stay-at-home order if numbers start to go up. If they do start to go up again, we know it will take a while for them to come back down again,” said Gardner during his weekly media briefing.
“I’m going to continue with the messaging that regardless of where we end up, it is very wise of us all if we continue to abide by a stay-at-home approach with this,” said Gardner, adding that approach has reduced transmission in the community.
Gardner reported 38 deaths in the region in the past two weeks, with 84 per cent being related to outbreaks.
The variant remains a concern.
To date 133 local cases have been tested positive for the COVID-19 variant of concern UK B.1.1.7 and an additional 93 cases have screened positive (awaiting confirmatory testing).
“The sheer number of cases that we’ve had is very worrisome. Whether or not we’ll actually prevent it from spreading widely in the community is open to question. I’ve positioned before that we will do all that we can to achieve it but it’s probable that we won’t and eventually it will spread in our community. Some projections have shown that in March it may become the predominant strain in Ontario, considering how rapidly it can spread.”
A resident in an unidentified housing complex in outbreak is causing concern, said Gardner, because they have had a positive screening test for a variant concern. Although the health unit is awaiting results as to which variant, it could mean that the UK variant has spread to another community.
The distribution of vaccines remains limited. Gardner said the region is only getting limited supply at this time, just enough to give second doses.
In fact, the health unit has had to “borrow” doses from Southlake Regional Health Centre in order to complete the program.
The health unit is hoping to receive more next month and continues to work with partners to plan the setup of immunization clinics for the masses, beginning with priority groups.
Over 24,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Simcoe Muskoka, mainly to health care workers in local hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes.
This includes nearly 8,000 individuals that have received both of the required doses of the vaccine. In addition, 2,924 (or 91 per cent) long-term care residents and 2375 (or 65 per cent) retirement home residents have received their first dose.