THUNDER BAY - With the Thunder Bay District Health Unit reporting 12 new COVID-19 cases since last Thursday, the chief medical officer of health says there is a silver lining to this latest spike, but warns similar surges could arise in the months ahead.
Over the weekend, seven new cases were reported on Saturday, with four additional cases reported on Sunday. This follows cases being reported on Thursday and Friday, with one case identified at St. James Public School, and two at St. Margaret School.
“If there’s any good news with what we are seeing, we actually know where each one of our cases got the virus from and that is a really good thing,” said Dr. Janet DeMille, chief medical officer of health with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
“We can trace a pattern of who had it and how it spread among people and that is what we are doing.”
There is no evidence of community spread at this point and there are no hospitalizations as a result of the virus. The total cumulative cases in the district is 129 and 12 cases are considered active.
“Overall when we are able to identify the source for each person, that doesn’t indicate community spread,” DeMille said. “If we started to see people who are positive and don’t know where they got it from, that is evidence of community spread. In this latest cluster, we are in a good situation because there is no evidence of community spread.”
DeMille said the health unit has been working hard to follow up with all individuals who have recently tested positive and any potential close contacts, as well as working with local partners, including school boards.
“We follow up with each person and family that is involved and make sure that they are isolating because they are at risk of having COVID themselves,” she said. “The work on all of this is still progressing.”
Several cases have been linked to travel outside of the region and many parts of the country are reporting record high daily COVID-19 case counts, including Ontario.
But DeMille said the recent increase in the number of positive cases also has to do with how individuals interact with one another and how closely public health measures are being followed.
“The challenge is when we are doing well and not reporting cases, people can be a bit relaxed in the measures that they take,” she said. “But what we are going to start to see is more situations like this, more cases and more spread. We really need to remind people that we all have a responsibility to do all of those measures and do them consistency so we wont have spread of the virus in our communities.”
Last week the provincial government released its COVID-19 colour-coded control system. DeMille said the district is still in the green stage, or preventative stage, but she warns that could change and could bring new measures to stop the spread of the virus.
“Right now, we are in the green, prevent stage and I’m not thinking we need to change that right now, but certainly what I’m seeing in other health units and other northern health units and what we see here, we may be in a very different place in a month,” she said. “We want to be thoughtful and mindful of what measures we put in place.”
People are reminded to continue to practice all public health measures, including physical distancing, wearing a mask when in public indoor spaces, stay home when sick, and to avoid all non-essential travel outside the district.
Those who must travel for essential reasons should exercise extra caution when in areas with higher case counts in order to avoid infection. Upon returning, individuals should remain home as much as possible and monitor for symptoms for 14 days.
