Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Social gatherings continue to spur rising COVID-19 cases across KFLA.
That was among the messages KFLA Public Health medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore delivered during his weekly call with local media on Thursday.
Moore opened the media call with a quick update on the number of active cases in the region, reporting 18 new cases and 11 recoveries for an active total of 128.
While an outbreak at the All Seniors Centre construction site in Kingston continues to drive up local COVID-19 numbers, Moore noted smaller social gatherings are also contributing.
“The threat remains high,” Moore said of COVID-19 in the community. “Please remain in your household. The more social contacts you have the higher your personal risk of getting COVID-19. Just recall that the main strain in KFLA and the main strain that’s affecting that work site is the B.1.1.7. It’s 1.5 times as transmittable and two times as virulent as the base strain of COVID-19. As a result I’m very concerned at present for the community and we all have to be very observant of our next seven to 10 days of best practices and monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19 and getting tested if you do develop symptoms of COVID-19.”
Moore said 38 ‘first generation’ local cases of COVID-19 have now been linked to the construction site, with 22 secondary contacts.
While the outbreak accounts for a lot of the recent spike in cases, Moore said there are still too many social gatherings taking place.
“I think that’s still an issue, even small social events,” said Moore. “We’re doing interviews of individuals this week where they had two or three people over for a beer to watch the game or meet in the garage and then transmission occurred and those three bring it back to their families and those three get infected and those three then have social contacts. You see how it can rapidly propagate in the community. Very important, especially over the next two weeks, to minimize our social contacts and stay within our households and adhere to all the best practices of masking and hand hygiene.”
The cases aren’t confined to the city limits of Kingston either as Moore noted there are active cases in Napanee, Amherstview, Odessa, Sydenham and Godfrey, just to name a few.
Even outdoor backyard gatherings pose a risk.
“We’ve had transmission at bonfires outdoors as people were within two metres and someone had to have coughed or sneezed and the virus has been spreading in those environments,” said Moore. “It’s a lesson learned for all of us, this is a much more aggressive virus and sadly more virulent and sadly I do anticipate that we’ll have people hospitalized as a result of this event in our community and our hospital partners are aware.”
When asked about when the KFLA region might start to open up, Moore noted under the previous provincial system, this region would fall under the ‘red restricted’ zone. Even if openings occur regionally, they would come with several restrictions.
“Our case rate per 100,000 people is one of the highest we’ve ever had at 48.8,” said Moore. “I’m sorry to say that the risk in our community is high and it’s not just in Kingston, it’s across all of KFLA. We have two individuals in hospital both of whom are in intensive care units, one of whom is requiring ventilation. On the other side right now we’re at 44.2 per cent of our population over 18 has been immunized which is phenomenal and 86 per cent of those over 60 and over have been vaccinated.”
Despite the rise, Moore was confident the region could get the numbers back under control if everyone did their part.
“This will be a difficult couple of weeks as we try to get this under control,” said Moore. “We’ve done it in the past and past performance is the best indicator of future performance so I do think together with the community and ever increasing immunization coverage rate of our vulnerable members of the community, we will get through this and together through adhering to best practices day by day we’ll be able to decrease the risk in our community.”