Chatham-Kent's top doctor is reminding residents that the efforts of fighting COVID-19 aren't over yet, despite some recent encouraging data.
Wednesday marked the second day in a row that Chatham-Kent's active case count of the virus has been at zero. There had previously been active cases every day since the municipality's first case was reported on March 18.
"The lower the number, the happier I am. Anything you can count on one hand is manageable.," said Chatham-Kent’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby. "This doesn't mean that COVID-19 is eradicated once and for all in Chatham-Kent, there will be more positive cases."
According to Colby, most of the recent cases seen in the municipality had been linked to sources outside of Chatham-Kent. Even though Wednesday's number is optimistic, Colby said it's not the time for people to stop ignoring recommendations from health officials.
"Just because our number's zero, doesn't mean it's time to relax all of the precautions that we've been advising all the way along," he said. "Increased hand washing physical distancing are the most important things and not having large [group gatherings]."
Heading into the Thanksgiving long weekend, Colby urged residents to avoid travelling for the holiday and to only celebrate with those in their immediate household. If there is a spike in local cases linked to holiday travel or large gatherings, Colby said it will take about two weeks for that influx to show up.
"It probably would start to show up a little bit ahead of that time," he explained. "There is an incubation period so we would probably start to see in just over a week some symptomatic people and positive results."
As for one of the next big celebrations on the horizon, Colby said he will most likely release his official guidance for Halloween in Chatham-Kent on Thursday. He said it will include recommendations for people to not have any parties and stick to a physically distanced outdoor Halloween.
"I don't see anything wrong with trick or treating and family groups but not aggregating in large groups of people," he said.
Despite there currently being no active cases, Colby said he does believe that public health is currently dealing with some situations that have not turned into confirmed cases yet. According to Colby, he has gotten reports of people ignoring recommendations to avoid going to work if they feel unwell. With cold and flu season around the corner, Colby said it's more vital now than ever to remind people to stay home if they think they might be infected.
"It's really important," he said. "People can't just make the assumption that it's just a cold. If you're sick, stay home, get tested... We really don't want people showing up at public workplaces who are ill...This is something we have an innate bias for, we're all taught to be tough and keep going no matter what but that advice doesn't hold during the pandemic."
Colby said COVID-19 will only truly ever be over once a vaccine is available. In the meantime, he said there is a big push locally and across the province for people to get their flu shot this year.
"This is not the time to be vaccine-hesitant," he said. "Our hospitals often get overcrowded later on in the fall when the flu season hits. We can't afford that right now."
Since the pandemic began a total of 371 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Chatham-Kent with three deaths.