By Cecilia Nasmith
Dr. Ian Gemmill had a lot of numbers to share at the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit's February board of health meeting that paint a picture of the coronavirus epidemiology in this region.
It is approaching 1,000 cases and almost 100 deaths – most of them, not surprisingly, among older people. And though three variants of concern were identified in Port Hope, all are from the same household which, incidentally, had been in quarantine at the time the variant strains were discovered.
“We are really focusing on what's happening in the last seven to 14 days,” the Medical Officer of Health said.
“As of yesterday, we had 114 cases over 14 days. Our moving average is down a little bit, just over eight cases reported per day. That's a little down from January, when we were waiting for the effects of the lockdown to take place.”
The outbreak at a Lindsay long-term-care home is one of those unfortunate ones that took hold and dragged on, though Dr. Gemmill believes it is on the wane since there have been recent days with no new cases.
“We went in last week and immunized all uninfected residents and also offered it to recovered residents.”
The outbreak reported at the Central East Correctional Centre is also expected to end soon, he added.
In Northumberland, he said, most cases have begun through community contact as opposed to outbreaks.
“What I have been saying to the public and the press is, it demonstrates that wherever we are, we need to be careful.”
People may feel safe where they are, Dr. Gemmill said, but there are cases everywhere.
The orange designation in which the region opened is the decision of the province, he reminded the board.
There are more retail options and more services available, which will surely boost morale.
“But still, people, this does not mean things are back to normal,” he stressed.
“The thing I tell people is, continue to stay at home unless you have a reason to go out, and also not to travel – and that has been a difficult one.”
He noted with approval the decision to cancel an upcoming snowmobile event in Lindsay.
“It's important to remember that 98% of the population has not yet been infected. When we do things like gather and travel, we may lose the advantage we gain by keeping the number of cases down.”
The sheer number of phone calls staff are dealing with is another statistic Dr. Gemmill shared – “almost 20,000 phone calls related to the pandemic that our staff have been involved with over the past number of months.
“The call centre is in place, and every day we get reports on the call centre from the manager for that day – phone calls not only from our partners such as health-care providers, hospitals and schools, but we also act for the public on follow-up cases and contacts.
“It keeps our staff really busy. Every one of the cases generates additional work because of the contacts involved.”
