Keep your holiday small, Hirji urges
Niagara could face another shutdown if virus surge continues
Whether Niagara faces a new pandemic lockdown — with all the social and economic pain that comes with it — may come down to how people handle the long Thanksgiving weekend, says Niagara Region’s top public health official.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, acting medical officer of health, said the recent spike in local COVID-19 cases was generated, in part, during the September Labour Day long weekend.
Although that was the weekend of Sept. 5 to 7, it can take up to two weeks for an infected person to develop symptoms and get tested.
And some of those people ended up spreading the virus to others, Hirji said, creating even more cases.
“People were having larger gatherings and the virus was spreading there,” Hirji said. “That played an important role in the increase we saw in September.”
The last half of September into this month has seen a marked increase in cases in Ontario and in Niagara. When once there were one to three new cases confirmed daily here, now the average is about 11.
Outbreaks have been declared in long- term- care homes, schools and other local settings. The virus is spreading in family homes and, Hirji said, in some workplaces as people refuse to stay home when feeling sick or awaiting results of a COVID-19 test.
“The numbers are not really good right now. Ontario set a
new record today with nearly 800 cases,” Hirji said Thursday.
“If the numbers continue to get out of control the province may well move region back into Stage 2 or even into Stage 1. This weekend might be our last chance to avoid that.”
Hirji issued a similar warning earlier this week, noting the rising tide of cases and an urgent need to tamp down the infection rate.
As the infection rates grow so does the risk of outbreaks and exposing more vulnerable people to the virus.
“If we collectively do what we have to, we can get the (Niagara) numbers down to four or five a day instead of 11,” he said.
To prevent the Thanksgiving weekend from becoming a significant source of new infections, Hirji is urging residents to keep holiday gatherings small by limiting them to people in their household.
He said provincial guidelines pertaining to gatherings — 10 for people indoors and 25 for those outdoors — have been somewhat confusing for people
who then equate them as being the same as their social “bubble.”
The part that is forgotten about those guidelines, he said, is both for the outdoor and indoor gatherings people are supposed to also be spaced at least two metres apart to limit potential spread of the novel coronavirus.
Gatherings that do not use physical distancing — along with no masks — have contributed to the recent rise in infections, he said.
“Those are the not the kind of
gatherings we should have this weekend,” said Hirji.
Public health confirmed nine new cases Thursday, a number in keeping with the new, higher daily baseline of infections. That brings the region’s historic total of COVID-19 cases to 1,165, with 131 of them active.
At least 65 Niagara residents with the virus have died since March, with the most recent death being reported on Oct 5.