COVID-19 case tracing key to reopening economy
Public health must keep testing, investigating to stop outbreaks: Hirji
Even as it continues to try to contain local outbreaks of COVID-19, Niagara’s public health department is preparing to shoulder the responsibility of keeping the virus under control when Ontario takes its first steps toward opening the economy.
While pleased the government of Premier Doug Ford is taking a measured, conditionsbased approach to easing antiCOVID-19 measures and restarting economic activity, Dr. Mustafa Hirji warns the virus hasn’t gone anywhere.
“As I have said before, COVID-19 is going to be with us for a long time. So while Ontario starts removing some of these more coercive restrictions, we have to keep in mind that that virus is not gone,” said Hirji.
“Hopefully, as we move forward, people take some of those measures like physical distancing and good hand hygiene voluntarily. We are not at zero cases, and until there is a vaccine these measures will be necessary.”
On Monday, Ford announced a phased-in, three-stage approach to restarting Ontario’s economy.
The three stages will see businesses and workplaces reopen at different times, though likely with distancing measures in place, and restrictions on gath
erings eased, though even the final stage doesn’t contemplate a return to large sporting events and concerts.
Stage 1 in the framework could include opening select workplaces that can modify operations, such as providing curbside pickup or delivery, opening parks, allowing for more people at certain events such as funerals, and having hospitals resume some non-urgent surgeries.
Each stage will only start upon the advice of Ontario’s medical officer of health, and will require at least two weeks of consistent decline in COVID-19 cases.
Hirji said as the stages are enacted, it will be up to public health departments to actively test, and employ vigorous casetracing to monitor the spread of the virus in the community and pounce on outbreaks before they have the opportunity to spread widely.
For life to move from a pandemic lockdown to a new normal, Hirji said COVID-19 surveillance will be Ontario’s first line of defence against a second wave that puts the province back months.
The question is not if the virus will spread again, he said, but how far-reaching that spread will be. He said there is definitely going to be some undetected, asymptomatic spread of the novel coronavirus, meaning even as economic activity starts back up, infection control measures will remain important.
“When the province starts easing some of the restrictions, we will start to see more community transmission of the virus,” Hirji said. “So as we move forward, this is not a sign that we can let go of the measures we have in place, like physical distancing.”
Hirji said public health departments and hospitals are better prepared than they were in March when the provincial government declared a state of emergency. While not a simple task, he said he is confident once this wave of COVID-19 ends, it will be possible to monitor the spread of the virus and work to contain outbreaks as they happen.
In a community like Niagara, where community spread of the virus has fallen sharply over the last few weeks, there is enough public health capacity to engage in the kind of COVID-19
surveillance needed to allow the economy to slowly restart.
There were 10 new cases confirmed Tuesday, consistent with the past several days, bringing the total number of new cases since the first case was found in St. Catharines on March 13 to 472.
The number of active cases fell by 20 to 226 Tuesday as more people recovered from COVID-19. Hijri said two weeks ago testing in long-term-care homes — where the majority of local COVID-19 cases are located — discovered a wave of infections, even among asymptomatic people. Many of those people are now recovering from the infection, causing the jump in the number of resolved cases.
At least 43 Niagara residents with COVID-19 have died, with nearly 86 per cent of them residents of long-term-care homes.
Outbreaks in six long-termcare homes remain the region’s COVID-19 hot spots. More than 153 residents — most of them living at Lundy Manor in Niagara Falls and Seasons Retirement Community and Royal Rose Place both in Welland — have been infected.
About 102 health-care workers have been infected with COVID-19, most of them longterm-care home employees.
The other three homes — Bethesda in Lincoln, Henley House in St. Catharines and Woodlands of Sunset in Pelham — only have a few cases and have enacted enhanced infection control measures to try to keep it that way, Hirji said.