Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health is expecting more COVID-19 cases to pop up in the municipality, but he is also confident there is still no community spread.
Dr. David Colby said Thursday that one new travel-related case was recently reported in Chatham-Kent and there are a couple of workplace-related cases that have been connected to outbreaks in Windsor-Essex, but most of the other new local cases have emerged from close contacts within families.
"It's not as if we have people that are turning up positive from our testing that we have no notion of where they are getting this, which would indicate that we're dealing with... community spread," said Dr. Colby. "We are isolating all of these people and finding and isolating people is cornerstone to controlling this along with preventative measures."
Dr. Colby reiterated that he is not concerned that the general public in Chatham-Kent is at significant risk at this time, but added the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit (CKPHU) is keeping a close eye on any new developments. He also noted that he does not believe any of the new cases are related to any gatherings on Canada Day.
CK Public Health reported 16 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday afternoon and three recovered cases. Active cases are now up to 45 in Chatham-Kent. Forty-one new cases have been reported in Chatham-Kent so far this week, bringing the total number of cases to 214 since the pandemic started.
While Dr. Colby expects more positive cases to show up, he also noted that some of the active cases have been isolating for a while now and once they reach the 14-day mark of their isolation, they can be considered "resolved". Dr. Colby added that more studies have now shown that no one is contagious for longer than about 10 days.
"Although we will get more cases and our active case number may go up... I'm not expecting it to go up a lot," said Dr. Colby. "I don't think there's cause for alarm. It's my job to keep track of all this and I'm keeping track of it and making sure -- just like I did with the Greenhill outbreak -- that this does not get out of control."
Dr. Colby also noted that things have gone "quite smoothly" in Chatham-Kent since the municipality moved to Stage 3 of the province's reopening plan on July 17. He said the public health unit has responded to a couple of complaints of physical distancing precautions not being followed or servers not wearing masks, but noted those calls have been few and far between.