Extended lockdown looming as COVID cases getting ‘out of control’

If not for the lockdown, Peterborough would be in an orange zone and moving quickly toward red in the provincial colour-coded framework measuring COVID-19 prevalence, said the medical officer of health — and she also warned that the provincewide lockdown could extend further than 28 days.

Prior to the lockdown on Dec. 26, Peterborough had been in a yellow caution zone and the Greater Toronto Area had been in a red zone.

But Dr. Rosana Salvaterra said at a virtual press briefing on COVID-19 on Wednesday that there’s been a tripling of local cases of COVID-19 in Peterborough over the holidays.

“If we were not in the midst of this provincial shutdown, we would have gone from orange to potentially red this week,” she said. “So Peterborough, we do need to do better.”

The number of active cases in Peterborough city and county and Hiawatha and Curve Lake First Nations was at 92 on Wednesday afternoon, with a cumulative total of 406 cases.

Two weeks ago that figure was 27 active cases, Salvaterra said, “representing a tripling of cases.”

“I’m not sure if it was the Christmas shopping or the socializing associated with the holidays — but certainly our rates of COVID infection have soared over the past two weeks,” she said.

While an outbreak at Riverview Manor was lifted on Wednesday, outbreaks remain at the Community Living group home on Romaine Street, a workplace in Otonabee-South Monaghan Township and another congregate living facility in Peterborough.

A surge in infection rates has happened in communities across Ontario, Salvaterra said, despite the lockdown.

In Peterborough the surge started on Christmas Day with a tripling of the usual number of daily cases, Salvaterra said — and that surge has continued with a record-high 20 cases reported in a single day over the weekend.

Public health nurses think much of the transmission is linked to holiday socializing, Salvaterra said.

“Not only were Peterborough residents entertaining family members from provincial hot zones, but they had guests in their homes whose last names they didn’t even know,” she said.

Salvaterra also said she’s alarmed that some people have been going to work or shopping or socializing while awaiting their test results. If you’ve been tested, she said to stay home until you get your results.

She also asked all employers to actively screen staff so no one with symptoms comes to work.