The region’s medical officer of health is troubled by the increased COVID-19 caseload in the Simcoe Muskoka region.
“I’m concerned with what I’m seeing,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. “We’ve had a substantial number of cases even in the last 24 hours.”
He reported there were 17 new COVID-19 cases confirmed in the region since Saturday afternoon. At least five of those were reported to the health unit in the last 24 hours.
There are now 14 residents and two staff confirmed infected with COVID-19 at Bradford Valley long-term care facility, all of those cases have been reported since last Friday. This is the second long-term care outbreak in the region. Spencer House in Orillia has one staff member confirmed with the virus, other staff members and residents have been tested, but results have been confirmed negative.
There are now 105 lab-confirmed cases in Simcoe County and Muskoka.
The case breakdown for towns and cities in the region is as follows: Collingwood (2), Barrie (19), Orillia (9), Springwater (4), Clearview (2), New Tecumseth (12), Adjala-Tosorontio (2), Bradford West Gwillimbury (20), Essa (2), Innisfil (3), Wasaga Beach (2) Midland (3), Oro-Medonte (2), Tiny (2), Ramara (2), Gravenhurst (6), Muskoka Lakes (2), Penetanguishene (1) and Huntsville (4). The remaining 11 cases have not yet been posted to the website, and no location, age, gender, or transmission data is yet available.
“The task at hand is to do all we can to flatten the curve,” said Gardner. “I emphasize the importance of community transmission. People need to be assuming it’s transmitting in their community and therefore they need to take precautions.”
There are at least 22 cases in the region attributed to community transmission where the source cannot be traced.
There have been five deaths, including a Wasaga Beach man, two men in Barrie, and an Orillia couple.
There have been two cases confirmed in Collingwood residents. The first man who tested positive for the virus is now reported recovered.
The most recent case confirmed in Collingwood was believed to be community transmitted, and the man, 30-year-old Chad Warren, said he thinks he caught it while talking to someone who had recovered from the virus. The person he talked to had spent 14 days in self-isolation and the two stayed about five or six feet apart.
“People always have their suspicions about how they got something if they don’t know for sure,” said Gardner. “There is community transmission happening right now.”
Gardner said it’s not possible in all cases to know 100 per cent where and how individuals contracted the virus.
Physical distancing “won’t be perfect, but it’s highly protective,” said Gardner.
There could also be times when an individual will still be “shedding” the virus after recovering and spending 14 days in self-isolation.
Again, Gardner said the 14-day isolation for those with the virus is shown to be “highly protective, though not absolutely perfect.”
“That is why we require healthcare workers to have two negative test results before returning to work,” said Gardner.
Even with physical distancing and handwashing, the doctor recommended limiting the number of times you go out into the community. He said to plan ahead and try to reduce shopping trips to once per week, and go to the grocery store and pharmacy on the same day.
Gardner said he’s still encouraging outdoor walks because of the exercise benefits.
“I think outdoors is probably safer, but even so you want to limit the number of times you go out in a day,” said Gardner.
He is not recommending the general public wear gloves. He said proper and frequent handwashing will do more to prevent the spread of the virus.
Yesterday, he said a homemade mask might prevent someone who doesn’t know they have the virus from transmitting it, but said the public should be more focused on physical distancing measures while out in the community.
