The head of Sudbury’s hospital is worried that if Northerners don’t heed warnings to stay home this Easter weekend, the region will see the surge in new cases the area has so far avoided.
“This is the make or break weekend,” Dominic Giroux, the CEO of Health Sciences North, told Sudbury.com this morning.
He said he knows the long weekend is here, that the weather is going to be nice and, because of the Easter holiday, people will want to gather together with friends and loved ones.
But everyone has to resist the urge to do that, Giroux said — for the sake of friends and family, for the sake of health-care workers and first responders, and for the sake of their own health and safety.
“The reality is we don’t know who’s carrying the virus, so Northerners need to stay home. We need you to stay home,” he said. “We have to take seriously the advice of Public Health. It’s really not the time to socialize.”
A tragic chain of events in Chicago in February, and reported on yesterday by the Chicago Sun Times perfectly illustrates why health officials are desperately hoping people abide by directives to avoid gathering together this weekend.
In February, a man who was unknowingly infected with COVID-19 attended a dinner with friends, then a funeral and then a birthday party. He ate from communal dishes at the dinner and a potluck meal. He shook hands; he hugged friends and loved ones.
Officials are now calling this one weekend a “super-spreading event.” The man only had slight respiratory symptoms at the time. From that one weekend, 15 people were infected. Three died.
This is exactly the scenario Giroux and other health-care officials in the region don’t want to see this Easter weekend.
Those same officials are worried that because cases in the North and Canada have been relatively low compared to other countries, the public might be getting complacent about physical distancing, hand-washing and other precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.
The North isn’t out of the woods yet, by any means. As of Tuesday, there were 22 people in critical care for COVID-19 in the North, four confirmed cases (one in Sudbury, one in Thunder Bay, one in Timmins and one in Kirkland Lake) and 18 pending.
HSN has five admitted patients who are positive for COVID-19, one of whom is in the ICU and one of whom is a pediatric case, Giroux said.
But, there are also 24 cases under investigation, with 21 of these people having been admitted to hospital and four of those in the ICU. The cases under investigation could be looked at as a bellwether of what’s to come.
There are some reassuring trends, Giroux said. Fourteen patients in Greater Sudbury who were suspected to have COVID-19 tested negative.
Of the 101 hospital staff who have been tested, 87 have tested negative, and 14 are pending. Of the 26 positive cases in this region, 14 are resolved, he added, which is four times lower than the trend.
As well, if you look provincially, there is some promising movement, Giroux said. On April 1, there were 167 confirmed cases and 349 suspected cases, for a total of 516. But, as of April 7, there were 246 confirmed cases but only 248 suspected, for a total of 494.
“The cases are going up yes, which is what we expect, but the combined total is lower (because the number of suspected cases dropped) — we need to keep that trend going,” Giroux said.
On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said Ontario's low number of daily COVID-19 tests was unacceptable and that the province, beginning today, would be ramping up testing to 13,000 a day, the most the province is capable of doing.
“This is music to our ears,” Giroux said. “The backlog (of COVI-19) tests is pretty much eliminated. Now the challenge is a lack of swabs (to do the tests).”
Mayor Brian Bigger issued a statement on Wednesday asking potential visitors not to come to Greater Sudbury and asking residents not to welcome any visitors into their homes this Easter weekend.
“Normally and under different circumstances we would have everyone come visit us. But these are not normal circumstances and I have a duty to protect our residents,” the mayor’s statement reads.
And today, Public Health Sudbury & Districts reiterated the message Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, the chief medical officer of health for the region, delivered on Tuesday to Sudbury.com: Stay home this weekend. Distance matters.
“Whether celebrating Easter or Passover, we wish you a joyous celebration. This year, due to the outbreak of #COVID19, everyone must stay home and practise physical distancing. Stay connected by phone or video chat to keep everyone safe and healthy.”
Whether celebrating Easter or Passover, we wish you a joyous celebration. This year, due to the outbreak of #COVID19, everyone must stay home and practise physical distancing. Stay connected by phone or video chat to keep everyone safe and healthy. #PublicHealth #Sudbury pic.twitter.com/aKPMgjxROW
— Public Health Sudbury & Districts (@PublicHealthSD) April 9, 2020
