Mayor Darrin Canniff, Dr. David Colby and CAO Don Shropshire during a Facebook live stream on March 24, 2020 (Screengrab via Municipality of Chatham-Kent Facebook)Mayor Darrin Canniff, Dr. David Colby and CAO Don Shropshire during a Facebook live stream on March 24, 2020 (Screengrab via Municipality of Chatham-Kent Facebook)
Chatham

Risk of COVID-19 remains low in CK

As of Tuesday afternoon, there are still only two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent and the risk to the community remains relatively low.

That's according to Dr. David Colby, Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health. He was joined by Mayor Darrin Canniff, Chief Administrative Officer Don Shropshire, and Chatham-Kent Health Alliance CEO Lori Marshall during a live question and answer session on Tuesday.

Colby said a large number of people in the municipality have been tested for the virus, with only two positive cases confirmed so far.

"We have a number of tests pending. I don't have the exact number, but I don't have a high index of suspicion for any of those cases," said Colby. "We're doing our best to make sure we don't miss any. There are some concerns that community transmission has happened in a lot of parts of Canada...we are behaving as though it's [in Chatham-Kent]. That's why we're advocating social distancing. There may be cases that we don't know about but we only have the two right now."

Although Colby said those numbers are reassuring, he still urged people to practice extreme caution and follow recommendations by health officials, including social distancing. Colby also discussed the topic of COVID-19 during Monday night's council meeting, explaining that there are some challenges to overcome when it comes to testing for the virus.

"I would say that the risk is still low but not extremely low," he said. "I have to qualify that because of the shortage of test kits and the inability of the province to test more than 2,000 to 3,000 results a day and produce that is hampering the scientific understanding of what we're dealing with. Testing has only been applied to symptomatic people and only those with the most severe symptoms preferentially."

To help limit the number of people at the COVID-19 assessment clinic in Chatham, Marshall suggested people first go online to evaluate their symptoms.

"What we're recommending is that people first start with the online self-assessment tool. That can walk you through, give you a better understanding of whether you need to reach out further. The next step we would say would be contacting public health or your own primary care provider, family doctor, or nurse practitioner," Marshall said.

When asked what's being done to make sure people are self-isolating, Colby said it mainly comes down to the honour system. However, he said the federal government is looking at creating a penalty for those who don't self-isolate after travel.

"We largely rely on the willingness of people to contribute to the common good and do what we ask them to do," Colby said.

April Rietdyk, director of the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit, said the health unit has gotten a number of reports from people about children and parents using playgrounds and not following recommendations. Rietdyk stressed the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle while still practicing social distancing.

"We still want people to be active. We want them out and about getting fresh air but they need to really try and do that in their front yard [or] backyard," she said.

Rietdyk added that it's still important for people to go out for runs and walks, but just avoid doing so in large groups.

According to Rietdyk, countless hours of work have been done by hospital staff to move patients out of hospital beds who would normally stay at the facility for several days and provide them with necessary health care resources in the community.

"In Chatham-Kent, we have the benefit of being one of the first Ontario health teams, which has really allowed us to move forward very, very quickly," she said. "We have acute care, primary care, emergency services, public health and all of our community partners that work in health and social services. Certainly, we're working together throughout this pandemic. It has been a week of a number of ongoing conversations in regards to a number of issues."

When it comes to emergency supplies in Chatham-Kent, Rietdyk said although there have been some hurdles, local health care providers have been working together to curb supply shortages.

"We don't have any one agency or one partner hoarding [personal protective equipment.] So we're really coming at this with a community perspective," she explained.

You can view the full question and answer live stream by clicking here.

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