Hirji warns that more COVID-19 cases are likely on the way
It would be tempting to look at another day of zero new COVID-19 cases in Niagara as a sign the pandemic is drawing to an end.
It is the fifth such day in the past seven days, but Dr. Mustafa Hirji warns against being lulled into a false sense of security.
“Our baseline of cases is not zero. I don’t know that we are ever going to get to zero,” Niagara’s acting medical officer of health said of Tuesday’s daily COVID-19 case count. “We are absolutely going to see more cases.”
Hirji is waiting for results from a batch of tests conducted on migrant workers at Pioneer Flower Farms in St. Catharines, the location of Niagara’s most recent COVID-19 outbreak.
On Sunday, public health declared an outbreak at the farm after 17 workers tested positive for COVID-19. It is the largest local novel coronavirus outbreak outside of a health-care facility in Niagara, and Hirji is expecting more cases will be identified when the results of the second batch of tests come in.
Moreover, the infected workers may have been vectors to spread the virus outside of their workspace and living quarters.
“Some of those employees did have contacts outside of their farm environment and we have been in contact with those people,” Hirji said. People who had close contact with Pioneer workers have been placed in isolation. Others whose contact was fleeting are being asked to monitor themselves for even the slightest symptom.
Hirji said public health employees are following up regularly with those contacts.
He said there are 250 local farms that employ migrant workers — a critical labour force for the Canadian agricultural sector, and have been since the federal government decided in March the workers would be allowed into Canada during the pandemic.
Arriving workers must selfisolate for 14 days upon arrival, and their living quarters must be arranged so anyone who contracts the virus can be isolated.
Hirji said public health was inspecting these quarters prior to the outbreak, and getting the green light from public health was a requirement for a farm to bring in international workers.
“Some farms are more diligent than others. And for those who are less diligent we have been doing in-person inspections,” Hirji said.
In the case of Pioneer, Hirji said workers were not using personal protective equipment, and their living quarters made physical distancing difficult.
“It is like being on a cruise ship,” Hirji said, comparing migrant workers quarters to the ships where many of the early COVID-19 cases first emerged outside of China.
In light of the outbreak at the farm, public health has instructed all employees to use PPE.
Hirji said it is not clear where the first infected worker contracted the virus. He said the workers were not exposed to their peers in Norfolk county, where one farm has an outbreak involving more than 160 employees.
However, Hirji said the Pioneer farm example is a stark reminder why Niagara residents should be wary of taking a day with no new cases as a victory over the virus.
“In this case, someone got the virus, was working in close proximity to other people, and the virus spread. This is a very good reminder that we are not actually at zero cases, and the virus can spread very quickly through large groups of people.”
That is why, Hirji said, he continues to “harp” on his key message since the start of the crisis: residents need to practise physical distancing, good hand hygiene and wear masks when distancing is not possible.