Enjoy the weather, but avoid large groups, warns Hirji
Trillium Unit at Greater Niagara General Hospital outbreak declared over
While enjoying time outside may be a good remedy for those who feel quarantine fatigued, Niagara Region Public Health is encouraging residents to avoid large groups of people.
“Obviously, summer has come and everyone has been cooped up inside and we don’t want to discourage people from getting outdoors, but it’s really important that if you are going to do that that you continue to do physical distancing and other things we’ve been recommending such as washing your hands frequently,” said Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health.
Traffic was busy along the Niagara Parkway over the weekend as people took advantage of
the warm weather, and many paid a visit to the falls at Table Rock. The congestion made it difficult for people to abide by social distancing requirements.
“For somewhere like the falls, we don’t want to see big crowds,” Hirji said.
Large gatherings of people, he said, create a perfect storm for increased cases of infection.
“We need to be careful about how we enjoy the outdoors right now,” he said.
“There is still the risk that, if we congregate more the infection will start to pick up in larger and larger numbers — pick up steam — and we’ll be back to where we were in early-mid March.”
Such an increase, he added, will be detrimental to the work already being done across the province as communities focus on a post-pandemic environment.
“We want to keep things low so we can keep opening up businesses and getting people back to work and keep enjoying the amenities we’ve had to do without for the past couple of months.”
Niagara’s COVID-19 caseload rose by seven over the weekend — three on Saturday and four on Sunday — bringing the region’s historic total of coronavirus cases to 631, with 87 of those currently active.
Of the new cases, five are the result of close contact with previously known cases, one is related to international travel and one is related to close contact with someone who had recently travelled.
The total number of resolved cases sits at 486, and 58 people have died.
All 12 of Niagara’s municipalities have active cases, with Welland and Niagara Falls having the highest numbers due to outbreaks at seniors homes and health-care facilities.
Niagara Health on Friday said an outbreak in the Trillium unit at the Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls had been declared over. A second outbreak at GNGH, however, is ongoing.
Outbreaks have been declared at a number of heath-care facilities, long-term-care homes and senior residences, including Albright Manor in Lincoln, and Kilean Lodge in Grimsby, West Park Health Centre in St. Catharines, Tufford Nursing Home in St. Catharines, Crescent Park Lodge in Fort Erie, Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls, and Royal Rose Place in Welland.
The outbreak at Royal Rose Place has been in effect for almost seven weeks.
“Unfortunately, it’s not at the point yet where we can declare it over,” Hirji said. “We’re continuing to monitor closely ... trying to make sure the outbreak comes to an end.”
As of Saturday, Niagara Health has tested a total of 11,409 patients for COVID-19, with 440 patients testing positive. It said 122 patients with the virus have been admitted to date, with 22 currently being treated.
Niagara Health case results may differ from public health due to the timing of collection of the data.