Public health: ‘It’s not a time for us to let up’
Region continues to move in a positive direction, but work not over to beat COVID-19
Niagara’s acting medical officer of health says it’s important residents keep up social distancing measures despite the temptation of a flattening curve and sunny weekend forecast.
“It’s not a time for us to let up,” said Dr. Mustafa Hirji Wednesday, adding everyone in Niagara should be congratulated for the work they’ve done so far in staying home, washing hands and limiting interactions.
“We also don’t want to declare a victory too early and stop now. We need to finish this off.”
Niagara had six new cases of COVID-19 confirmed Wednesday, bringing the historic total to 478. Of those, 192 are active cases and 242 people have recovered.
Public health has reported 44 deaths of people infected with COVID-19 to date.
The six new cases Wednesday included two community transmissions which have unknown sources and four cases of people who had contact with known previous cases.
One of the new cases was a health-care worker from Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre. It was Hotel Dieu’s first positive case, but did not prompt a declaration of an outbreak by public health.
The centre released a statement Wednesday saying the employee had not been at work for a considerable time prior to the diagnosis and was not at work while symptomatic. The individual is at home self-isolating.
Hotel Dieu will continue to accept patients and the situation will be monitored by its occupational health and safety team and infection control and prevention, in partnership with public health.
Niagara’s curve started to flatten in early April and Hirji said the figures over the past week are evidence of it flattening more.
Ontario overall saw 347 new cases reported on Wednesday, the lowest increase in weeks.
Hirji said it’s fewer cases than in some previous weeks, but still a large number.
He said it’s important people continue to stay at home, wash their hands often and limit interactions with other people.
“The more we’re doing those things voluntarily, the more room it’s going to give to government to really lift the requirements and restrictions they’ve had to put in place,” Hirji said.
“I really do feel strongly, we have to keep doing as much as we can on our part and being good citizens in that way, so that we can lift those restrictions, let people get back to work earning incomes where they need to, have more access to some sort of those amenities we’ve been without.”
Some people still find the temptation of getting out on nice weekends to be a strong one, however.
Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Betty Disero released a video message Wednesday saying the town has received a lot of emails and messages from residents upset about the number of tourists who were walking its main streets last weekend.
In an effort to discourage visitors, the town has posted signs in areas where people enter, closed its public washrooms and put in no-parking areas.
“We’re asking you to please stay home for now,” Disero said. “Visit us when we can actually accommodate you in a way we can all be proud of. At the moment, we’re still trying to get over the peak of this COVID-19 crisis.”
Hirji said his advice to people who want to spend time outdoors is to enjoy it from their balconies or in their yards so they’re not going out and interacting with others.
“We’ve had lots of good success,” he said. “I think it’s really good feedback that we’re seeing the curve flatten, we’re seeing fewer new cases but we don’t want to throw it all away now.”