The word outbreak, when it's connected to a COVID-19 report, has become a bit of a trigger.
Currently, the health unit is tracking 24 outbreaks in Simcoe County, at sites including long-term care homes, retirement homes, workplaces, group homes, a hospice, schools, and at least one grocery store.
It can get complicated for people reading about them because the definition of an outbreak is different depending on where it is.
For example, when I reported this weekend on an outbreak declared at Raglan Village in Collingwood, several commenters had strong words for me. Fear-mongering is always among them.
I understand why people could see it that way.
The province of Ontario has mandated that an outbreak must be declared at a long-term care or retirement home if there is one single positive COVID test result in a staff or resident. Nobody has to be showing symptoms of the disease and there doesn't have to be any evidence the virus has spread to anyone else in the home.
The opposite is true for a workplace, school, and even a hospital. In those cases, the health unit needs to find evidence of spread at the site between employees or students or patients.
According to Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, an outbreak declaration allows the health unit to be able to make sweeping orders, require testing of individuals at the site in outbreak, and generally keep a close eye on operations. In the case of Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland, the current active outbreak prompted an investigation from Public Health Ontario.
It is understandably worrisome to read that an outbreak has been declared. But they are declared by the health unit (not the media) in order to implement swift and strict control measures.
On a related note, if you're mad about the whole of Simcoe County and Muskoka District entering the red zone restrictions, know there's some benefit to that designation as well. Regions in the red zone and in grey lockdowns are the first to get a portion of the province's vaccine supply.
Outbreak and red zones do come with restrictions, but they're also part of a response plan. Whether that plan is good or bad is for someone else to decide – should we ask the comment section?
