CTV News reported on Jan. 21 that “the mystery of why virtually all of the seniors and 74 workers became infected with COVID-19 at Roberta Place Long-Term Care Home in Barrie is now becoming clear — one of the new variants of the novel coronavirus was behind the outbreak.”
On January 25th, Public Health identified the first variant in Sudbury.
The following day, I wrote in a column for Sudbury.com that “to give it the best shot that the B.1.1.7 variant does not spread beyond the city, the province should impose a ring of police around Barrie immediately. Immediately, because this virus spreads so quickly.”
On Feb. 9, during a meeting of city council, Mayor Brian Bigger said he was taking the next step in the effort toward securing a bubble around Sudbury and Northern Ontario.
Bigger tabled a motion that would see him send a letter to the premier, asking to establish awareness checkpoints along Highway 69 in order to discourage non-essential travel from Southern Ontario to the North. The motion was passed unanimously.
Premier Doug Ford refused to do so.
By March 25, the B.1.17 variant was responsible for 28 per cent of new coronavirus infections in Sudbury. Today that number has climbed to 60 per cent. On Feb. 11, there were 27 active cases in our district. By late March, more than 300.
The decision to lockdown our community and close our schools followed. Life is not yet returning to normal, but the outbreak is beginning to resolve. Active cases number around 100. Hospital and ICU numbers for COVID-19 admissions remain fairly stable. An impressive 100 per cent of individuals aged 75 and older have received at least one vaccine shot.
Unfortunately, Toronto and Peel are in chaos. Their hospitals and ICUs are overwhelmed. More than 500 patients have been moved between Ontario hospitals since April 1. A record 80 in a single day last Thursday. The first two ICU patients from the south arrived last week at Health Sciences North, ironically from Barrie.
The Ontario government also announced the establishment of 15 checkpoints at provincial borders. It announced zero checkpoints to limit non-essential travel to and from hot spots. Does that make any sense? I remember when several Northern Ontario leaders called for checkpoints to be set up on the three highways running to the south, the province dismissed the idea as too expensive.
The province’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table issued their recommendations last week. Ontario needs stronger measures to control the pandemic. Recommendations included accelerating the vaccination of essential workers and limiting mobility. This means restricting movement between regions of the province and restricting movement into the province. Moving around the province risks creating new hotspots, especially because the variants of concern are so transmissible.
Maintaining social connections and outdoor activity are important to our overall physical and mental health. This means allowing small groups of people from different households to meet outside with masking and two-metre distancing. It means keeping playgrounds open, and clearly encouraging safe outdoor activities.
Hotspot hospitals need hospitals with unused capacity to save them. It is therefore crucial that so-called quiet areas of the province be protected from the variant. It staggers the imagination to consider what would be the outcome for seriously ill patients if the entire province were to become a hotspot.
Because it only takes one super-spreader traveller to start a big outbreak, Premier, act decisively on the recommendations of your Science Advisory Table. Limit travel to and from hot spot regions. Move the police checkpoints from the tiny towns along the Ontario/Quebec border to the highways outside hotspot regions of Ontario, like Toronto and Peel.
Vaccinate immediately essential workers and specifically, essential workers who must travel for their living, including truck and taxi drivers.
Dr. Peter Zalan is past president of the medical staff at Health Sciences North.
