NWHU MOH urging area residents to be more vigilant with COVID-19 prevention measures
Tim Brody - Editor
Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kit Young Hoon is urging area residents to be more vigilant with COVID-19 prevention measures, stating in a Feb. 22 update to regional media that, “Although most parts of Ontario are seeing a steady decline in COVID-19 positivity rates and hospitalizations, the Northwestern Health Unit region is seeing an increase.”
Young Hoon went on to explain that as of Feb. 22, “We have the highest case rate per 100,000 population in Ontario, about five times as high as the provincial rate and are seeing increases in the trending data. The region’s seven-day positive case rate is 455.1 per 100,000 population, while Ontario as a whole, sits at 90.7 per 100,000.”
Young Hoon went on to add, “We’ve also seen that percent positivity is not improving, while for Ontario it’s been steadily improving over the past month. So, it does suggest that overall, there is increased circulating illness in our catchment area. So why is there increased circulating illness? It could be a number of reasons. Our Omicron wave did start later than the rest of Ontario, particularly in the southern parts of Ontario, their Omicron wave started early December, while ours started later in December, so therefore our Omicron wave is going to occur later, overall. So that’s one reason. Another reason is that we did not peak as high, so the peak for Ontario went much higher than our overall incidence. The peak of our incidence rate was lower, so therefore we have a flatter curve, which means it will last longer. And then of course our geography and our population is more distributed. We don’t all live in one urban centre that’s very dense and so therefore it could mean that the spread will occur over a longer period of time. So that might be a few explanations of why there is more circulating illness at this time, but overall, the key message for everyone is that the risk here is higher, so although restrictions have lifted provincially, what’s best for our region is that people gather in smaller groups, that they try to gather more outdoors, particularly when in indoor settings you make that effort to physically distance from others who are not within your household.”
Young Hoon stated, “We must do more to protect ourselves and those around us, including our local healthcare sector.” She went on to state, “This is an urgent call to all residents to be more vigilant with prevention measures, including physical distancing, daily screening, staying home when unwell, and wearing a mask when in indoor public settings. I highly recommend getting a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine if you are eligible. It provides very good protection against infection and symptoms from the Omicron variant.”
Young Hoon said of COVID-19 restrictions being loosened across the province on Feb. 17, “Ontario is seeing a decrease in case number rates, percent positivity, and hospitalizations. I cannot stress enough that we are not in the same situation. As such, in addition to prevention measures I’ve already mentioned, I strongly recommend that residents keep social gathering limits to a maximum of 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors and that all indoor public settings are limited to the number of people who are able to maintain a physical distance of at least two metres from every other person to a maximum capacity of 50 percent. These recommendations have been issued to keep our region’s most vulnerable residents protected: older adults, unvaccinated people, and immunocompromised individuals are particularly at higher risk of severe outcomes from a COVID-19 infection. I am hopeful that these enhanced prevention practices will allow our local COVID-19 rates to decrease.”
