Evidence the curve is flattening in Niagara
Test is how long it takes for new cases to double, officer of health says
Social distancing in Niagara appears to be starting to flatten the curve, but the Region’s acting medical officer of health says there are still new cases, and we can’t drop our guard.
“The way to tell if the curve is flattening is by measuring how long it takes the cases to double,” Dr. Mustafa Hirji said. “Right now, we are on a trajectory for our cases to double every eight days, maybe a little longer than that.
“That is pretty good. If you look at the United States, they were, until recently, doubling every two days.”
Hirji said there were 12 new cases, bringing the local total to
201. Public health wasn’t reporting any new deaths at noon Friday.
“The new cases are continuing to multiply,” Hirji said. “We don’t want to go back to having a sharp rise in cases. We need to keep doing the things we have been doing over the last few weeks — like keeping six feet distance from others, not gathering with too many other people, staying home as much as possible and working from home.”
Contact tracing has shown to have an impact around the globe in reducing the spread of
COVID-19 and is one of the priorities for the local public health unit, Hirji said.
And it is a combination of fairly drastic social distancing measures, and then isolating the cases and their contacts that appears to work, Hirji said.
“Our case-and-contact management team that is following up on each case is working from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.”
Hirji said the public health unit has a call-line available for residents over the long weekend from 9:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. every day at 905-688-8248 (press 7, then press 2) or toll free at 1-888-505-6074.
“We are very much a sevenday operation working into the evenings,” Hirji said. “We had to reallocate our staff from a lot of other programs, including vaccinations, sexual health, supporting young parents, and young mothers. It is a stressful time, but we are also doing work we all find rewarding. We see we are making a difference.
“When we see the curve start to flatten out, it does give us a bit of a morale boost.”