Confusion over social distancing rules grows
Infection control messages have to be consistent, says Hirji
Proper, full funerals are not permitted under pandemic emergency rules. Children cannot have birthday parties. Residents of retirement homes cannot have visitors.
All these activities, part of the daily mosaic of life, are either prohibited or extremely limited by physical distancing, the best tool in the arsenal to limit the spread of COVID-19. Even something as simple as visiting with neighbours on your driveway may earn the wrath of bylaw officers and a fine.
Hundreds can pack a strip of beach without being fined, however. And thousands can gather, shoulder to shoulder, to protest institutional racism and stand next to the community’s political and police leaders while doing it. No tickets will be issued.
During the protests in Ottawa, the owner of a pizza parlour mere metres from where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was kneeling amid the crowd was fined $800 for violating physical distancing orders by allowing customers to eat while standing six feet apart.
Trudeau and the other protesters were not fined.
These contradictions in how physical distancing is practised and enforced could result in a resurgence of COVID-19 cases as a public tired of the pandemic lockdown, emboldened by warmer weather and inspired by falling infection rates start to
ignore the safety guidelines, said Niagara’s acting medical officer of health.
“If you look at South Korea, there they began to reopen and start to return to normal in early May, but a few weeks later they saw their case count go up and they had to reimpose restrictions,” said Dr. Mustafa Hirji. “That is something that we want to avoid.”
Hirji has said messaging from political leaders about physical distancing has been confusing, with much more attention being paid to overall testing numbers, which while important, do not stop the spread of the virus.
He hopes that as the province moves into the next phase of economic reopening, the emphasis on physical distancing in the provincial guidelines are actively pushed by leaders.
“Physical distancing is part of the Phase 2 guidelines,” said
Hirji. “For example, you can have gatherings of up to 10 people, but that is 10 people who are physically distanced.”
Niagara, with Hamilton and Toronto, is not part of Phase 2. Premier Doug Ford cited a recent spike in Niagara COVID-19 cases, driven almost entirely by an outbreak among migrant workers at Pioneer Flower Farms in St. Catharines, as the reason why the region will have to wait.
Niagara public health reported only two new confirmed COVID-19 cases for the region Tuesday. Those cases — both transmission from a known source and unrelated to the outbreak — are in-line with the single-digit daily case growth Niagara has seen for weeks.
Since the pandemic began, 719 Niagara residents have been infected. Some 86 cases remain active, with at least 65 of them connected to the Pioneer farm outbreak. There are six people being treated for
COVID-19 in hospital. At least 61 people with the virus have died in Niagara.
Hirji said so far Niagara has dodged a communitywide surge in cases despite physical distancing falling by the wayside as people gathered on weekends in Niagara Falls or during the Victoria Day long weekend.
“I would caution against saying there have been no cases as a result. There may be connected cases, but we have not been able to determine that,” Hirji said. “What we can say is that we haven’t seen a spike in cases connected to that. That is in part because we have been lucky and the other part is that our case count remains fairly low, which has minimized the risk.”
However, Hirji said it would be a mistake for residents to feel emboldened by Niagara’s relative success in fighting COVID-19. The virus can rapidly spread through a population from a single case.