HEALTH OFFICERS WORKING ON JOINT PLAN FOR RESTRICTIONS

Top doctors from Windsor, Essex part of talks about ways to add to provincial COVID efforts

Top public health doctors in lockeddown regions in Ontario, including Windsor and Essex County, are discussing a possible joint plan for further restrictions in addition to those imposed by the province to try to contain the pandemic's outof-control second wave.

“A group of MOHS (medical officers of health) who are in lockdown zones right now and also in the areas that are in red — we are having this conversation to have some kind of plan put forward,” local Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed told his board of directors Thursday.

The plan must make sense in each region, Ahmed said, but the doctors are also looking at the issue “collectively.” They want to ensure that the plan “is applied consistently across the province rather than just doing some piecemeal efforts,” he said.

“This conversation is ongoing,” he said. “We are definitely looking at all the options at this time, and I'm hoping that some of these conversations will result in further consideration and further restrictions either locally or across the board.”

There is fear that the record numbers of cases in Ontario and some regions are just the start of a major surge during the holidays that will overwhelm the health care system. The Ontario Hospital Association was the latest health care organization Thursday to call for wider and tighter restrictions.

Four regions — Toronto, Peel, York and Windsor and Essex County — are currently locked down. Seven regions are in the red zone.

The revelation by Ahmed was in response to a question by board member and city councillor Rino Bortolin, who asked whether further action will be taken if the existing restrictions don't curb the skyrocketing number of cases here.

“Definitely that's something we are considering at this time,” Ahmed said.

“Some of us do feel that the impact of the second wave is probably because of people still doing what they do and if they can't do it locally ( because of restrictions), they're going outside,” he said.

He also revealed that mobility data gleaned from tracking cellphone signals shows people moving from one region to another.

“It does show that even in the GTA, despite the lockdown, the movement has stayed pretty much the same so that means people are still going out,” he said.

There have been discussions about getting more data to help public health officials understand what is happening and if there is a pattern.

Ahmed became the first medical officer of health in Ontario to close schools again, beginning this week, because of wide community spread of the virus resulting in five school outbreaks. All students are learning remotely this week. Minister of Education Stephen Lecce has since warned all school boards Tuesday to prepare to change to remote-only learning in January.

Windsor and Essex County reported another 191 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, three more deaths, 27 outbreaks, including a second outbreak at Windsor Regional Hospital, and 60 confirmed cases in hospital. Windsor Regional also reported another 51 patients with suspected COVID-19 waiting for test results. One thousand new cases were reported in the region in only 10 days.

There have been so many new cases that the health unit on Tuesday acknowledged it can't keep up and was advising ill people to tell their close contacts to isolate.

“I can tell you that the pressures of case management are ... stretching us very thin,” health unit CEO Theresa Marentette told her board Thursday.

The health unit has 51 staff, mostly nurses, to conduct case interviews. But there are more than 100 new cases, sometimes almost 200, daily now, and critical case interviews that took an hour during the first lockdown are taking two hours now because people are out in the community much more and have been in contact with many more people.

“So with 51 nurses, that's not enough, and ... I want to discuss a possible augment to them.”

Marentette was to present a proposal to the board in a closed session after the regular meeting.

The city and county have both offered to send the health unit municipal employees that have been idled by the lockdown.

Medical professionals are needed to do the “complex” case interviews, Marentette said. But, she said, “we do want to look at possibly taking up the city on an offer and helping us with the call centre.” The health unit receives “many, many” calls and has scripts to deal with some of these calls, she said.

Some of us do feel that the impact of the second wave is probably because of people still doing what they do and if they can't do it locally, they're going outside.