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‘Sacrifices are making a difference’, Sutcliffe says of COVID-19 response

Mayor Brian Bigger calls latest provincial data ‘promising’ but still too early to loosen restrictions
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Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, chief medical officer of health Public Health Sudbury & Districts. (File)

Promising data revealed this week shows Ontario’s COVID-19 cases may have peaked a month earlier than expected. 

Not everyone is a data scientist, so we reached out to Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health with Public Health Sudbury & Districts to help interpret what that means.

Sutcliffe said the reasons officials are cautiously optimistic about what the data show are two-fold. 

The first reason, she said, is that the number of new cases found is no longer rising each day. In fact, the total number of new daily cases appears to be beginning to decline. This indicates fewer people are being infected.

The other reason has to do with the amount of time it is now taking for the number of new cases to double. The faster the number of new cases double demonstrates exponential growth in virus spread. Sutcliffe explained that the doubling time of new cases getting longer means the rate of transmission is slowing.

The positive news doesn’t mean it is time to let our guard down, she said.

“I totally get the sacrifices people have made … (but) the measures have been essential to avoid horrific tragedy,” Sutcliffe said. “If we suddenly spring open, it will all be for naught.”

She said officials have started to consider how to de-escalate and relax measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. That requires widespread testing, Sutcliffe added, and the ability “to pounce on cases when they’re identified.” 

This is why Public Health Sudbury & Districts are encouraging more people to reach out and arrange to be tested, even if they have very mild COVID-19 symptoms. The more people tested, the better data officials have on the situation on the ground.

The North is earlier on in the curve from southern Ontario. Sutcliffe’s read on that is Northern Ontario was able to put measures in place earlier on and this has helped slow transmission in the region. But there’s a downside to that, too.

“If we relax measures too soon, there is less immunity in the community, so relaxing could lead to a spike.” And in communities that have so far not seen any COVID-19 cases, ending stay-at-home orders could lead to the virus spreading quickly as community-to-community travel ramps up.

And what about those people who still insist COVID-19 is no worse than the flu? Sutcliffe is pretty clear.

“Tell that to the people in Spain, Italy or France” where the hospitals have been overwhelmed, infection and fatality rates are through the roof, and doctors have to make awful decisions about who to treat and who not to treat. “This is the same virus.”

Mayor Brian Bigger told Sudbury.com said the city has a team in place “to look at how to come out of this” in a safe and gradual way, but much of the restrictions have been put in place by the province and can only be rescinded by the province. In particular, he was referring to parks, landfills and boat launches, which he said fall under the non-essential services the province ordered shuttered.

“We’re not in control of the timing,” he said.

Also, he reminded folks that there are parts of Bell Park that remain open for people to use. The only parts of the park that are closed to the public are areas where physical distancing isn’t possible.

He said he knows people are frustrated and cabin fever is becoming an issue but said society’s goal must be clear.

“The better we fare through all this, the easier it will be to rebound on the other end.”


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Mark Gentili

About the Author: Mark Gentili

Mark Gentili is the editor of Sudbury.com
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