NORTH BAY -- Dr. Glenn Corneil, the acting medical officer of health for the Timiskaming Health Unit, says the province-wide lockdown announce by the province Monday is the right move for the north.
“Certainly I would support that for our area,” Corneil said. “While we are in yellow based on last week's data, this week's data is suggesting we’re already up into orange if not higher. So lockdown is hard -- it’s hard on everybody, it’s hard on our businesses -- but from a COVID point of view, from where we’re seeing our numbers at this point, it’s certainly timely to help our area.”
In the last week, the health unit has declared two outbreaks: one at a high school in New Liskeard that has two active cases that are linked together, and one at Teck Pioneer Residence in Kirkland Lake following a staff member who tested positive.
Corneil said there have been no further cases at either of these establishments, however, the region continues to see cases climb.
“We’ve gone from 18 to, I think we’ll be announcing up to 43 cases later today and that’s just in the month of December,” he said.
This comes after the region announced five new cases on Friday and three on Saturday.
“Especially over the last week or so, we’ve had a real surge in cases and there are multiple situations that we’re dealing with throughout our district. So very concerning.”
Corneil said there were 15 or 16 cases announced last week alone as the district, prompting the decision to move into a yellow zone.
“A number of things are still under investigation, but for some reason, some people just seem to shed more than others and so a lot of our cases are what we call 'epi-linked,' or linked back to other positive cases," he said.
“The thing to remember is by the time we know somebody is positive, they’ve already been infectious for days, often without knowing. So we just have to assume that the people around us either have been exposed or have COVID, and we just have to stay very tight to our household.”
COVID-19 testing in the Timiskaming district has been above the provincial average since the beginning of the pandemic and that continues to be the case. Corneil said although the district has “done a fantastic job throughout this,” a province-wide lockdown is the right step.
“It will be hard on our district and with any district," he said. "Lockdown is a big deal. That being said, as we’ve been investigating things we’re still seeing too much socialization, not enough mask use, etc.”
“There are certainly benefits for moving to lockdown," he added. "In the surge in data that we’re seeing, it would be beneficial for us."
