Flattening the curve

Re: Flattening the curve

An April 1 article in the Post asked “With COVID-19 testing criteria restricted in Canada, can we be sure we are flattening the curve?” The answer is probably yes. Current testing guidelines allow us to test broadly in the case of outbreak investigations, patients that may require hospitalization and all health-care providers. These guidelines, in addition to other interventions (social distancing, hand washing, appropriate quarantine measures) seem to be making a difference. If this were not the case, the number of seriously ill individuals (which we are accurately counting) would go up. If this occurred, broader testing would be needed to develop more effective strategies to address the pandemic. Broad-based testing would inform us on the spread of infection in the general population, but may not be needed at this time where we must focus all available resources on, as Dr. Tams states, “planking the curve.”

Brian Conway MD, FRCPC, President & Medical Director, Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre

In countries successful in levelling their COVID-19 incidence curves, the general populace cover their faces in public, in addition to distancing and isolating themselves. This is advisable because individuals can communicate COVID-19 in the two or three days before they show symptoms, and covering the face thus decreases their communication of COVID-19 in those two or three critical days, as well as its reception by others. We need to adopt this best practice, notwithstanding the loss of face.

John Riley, Mono, Ont.