THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay region faces difficult weeks ahead in the fight against COVID-19, warns the district health unit. Medical officer of health Dr. Janet DeMille said the situation is serious enough that she believes it’s not a question of if, but when, the region will face its first deaths from the virus.
“Over the next month, we're going to see a significant increase in the number of cases here,” DeMille told viewers in a video update Saturday. “We will likely get more concrete evidence of community spread in Thunder Bay and other communities, and we will also see deaths related to COVID-19 in this area.”
The district has had 12 confirmed cases since reporting its first on March 27. Two of those are now resolved, DeMille reported.
Three cases in which individuals had not travelled in the two weeks prior to the onset of symptoms remain under investigation. Two of those individuals likely acquired it from someone close to them who had travelled, but the third may be an example of community spread, said DeMille.
“What this means is that there are people who have COVID-19 in this area who aren’t being identified,” she said. “Perhaps they had a fairly mild illness, maybe they didn’t think much of it, but those individuals could be passing the virus on to others without even knowing it.”
Symptoms of the virus can vary widely, DeMille said, making the job of promptly identifying cases more difficult. Of the 12 confirmed thus far, some have presented very mild symptoms, while one was treated at the hospital after developing pneumonia and experiencing breathing troubles. DeMille did not believe that individual had required a ventilator.
In her video address, DeMille urged residents to take the strongest possible precautions to reduce the spread of the virus.
“We need to act like there is community spread here,” she said. “This is crunch time. We must all do this well, and we must all do this now.”
Residents should avoid any non-essential travel between communities in the region, she said. She further implored people not to travel or gather over the upcoming Easter long weekend.
DeMille said projections released by the province Friday reinforced that current public health measures, such as the closure of schools and many businesses, are working to vastly reduce the virus’s spread and death toll.
Those measures may prove to be even more effective in northwestern Ontario, she said, because the spread of the virus had likely not progressed as far in the region when they were first implemented.
The next several weeks will be key to containing COVID-19, DeMille said. In an optimistic scenario, she believes the region may begin seeing things improve in May.
“This is going to go on longer than any of us want it to,” she said. “However, it will end. We need to hold on and do all the things we can do to reduce the spread of the virus here, so we can see that improvement happening as early as possible.”
In an interview, DeMille reiterated her belief that the region will not escape the virus unharmed.
“I think there’s no way we can avoid having people seriously ill and pass away from this,” she said.
She is particularly concerned about the risks to those in long-term care homes and First Nations in the region, and said the health unit is maintaining ongoing communication with them to assist with their preparations.
