Two weeks after the Black Lives Matter protest in Chatham, there is no sign of a spike in local COVID-19 cases.
CK Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby said that may change next week and he's bracing for it, but he is hopeful there will not be a surge in cases. He said it takes about two weeks for COVID-19 to start showing up if protesters got infected.
Pictures and videos of the protest showed that some of the two thousand protesters were not wearing masks and there is a push in the province to make masks mandatory for everyone in public but Colby told the local Board of Health on Wednesday that he's still not prepared to take that step in Chatham-Kent. Colby said it's not needed and hopes it doesn't turn into a debate at the expense of other more effective measures. Colby admits he would reluctantly have to follow the provincial rules if mandatory masks were forced upon the area.
"I'm not saying that masks have no value," said Colby. "They are mainly used to prevent dissemination from the wearer to others."
Colby maintained that masks give people a false sense of security.
"Most people still think that masks are highly protective to themselves if they're wearing one... if you want real protection then you have to use a face shield," added Colby.
Colby said the current provincial and federal recommendations are to wear a mask if you think you can't keep the social distance of two metres because of circumstances beyond your control.
"I don't want people saying OK I've got my mask on, now I don't have to maintain physical distancing, I can just go out there and not worry about that," the doctor said. "That is not the message I want to get out there."
Colby has said for weeks that masks are a distant fourth on his list of health and safety regulations to prevent COVID-19. Physical distancing remains number one on his list followed by physical barriers like plexiglass and directive stickers such as physical distancing reminders and one-way lanes.
On Thursday afternoon, CK Public Health reported four new cases of COVID-19, one in the community and three at a workplace outside of Chatham-Kent. Those infected at that workplace live in Chatham-Kent and must be counted by the local public health unit. CK now has a total of eight active cases.