Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Dr. Kieran Moore met virtually with local media one last time Thursday to provide a COVID-19 community update before he assumes his new role as Ontario’s chief medical officer of health.
After a decade as KFLA’s medical officer of health, he will begin his new role at the provincial level on Monday, working under outgoing provincial medical officer of health Dr. David Williams before fully taking over June 27.
Moore leaves at a time when the region has been posting some of its best numbers in relation to the pandemic. The current number of active cases in the region is 16 after four new cases were reported earlier today. The rate of infection continues to be low with a rate of 4.2 per week per 100,000 people. The number of overall tests that show a positive is now at 0.25 per cent.
As case counts drop the vaccination rate continues its steady climb as KFLA has now administered over 150,000 doses, which equates to 67.2 per cent of the adult population over 18 having received at least one shot.
“We want to keep that momentum going throughout the summer and build to the high 80 or early 90 per cent of the population immunized, that would be terrific,” said Moore. “We’re now starting second doses earlier than we had anticipated as the supply chain has improved which is a very good news story for our community.”
Moore credited the community for helping him secure his new role.
“I do have to thank everyone in KFLA,” he said. “Certainly the health unit can’t do it alone without the wonderful community that has embraced prevention in health promotion and protection. We’ve had great rates of individuals coming forward and getting tested. We’ve had great interest in having COVID prevented through immunization and that combination is what all of Ontario needs at this time. I intend to bring that same enthusiasm and energy that we’ve had locally to the central office.”
He says the decision to leave his current position was not an easy one.
“I’m hounoured to have the role going forward and I do think it is in no small part because of the success in our community and I have to thank everyone,” said Moore. “I took a long time to decide of changing this role, I love living and working in KFLA. We have a great agency here and great partners and it would have been easy for me to stay and continue my career here but they asked me to do this job and I have a deep sense of commitment to our community at large in Ontario and want to continue the great work that Dr. Williams has done for all of Ontario.”
Moore says there’s still a long ways to go in the battle against the pandemic, but when it’s over he wants to apply the lessons learned into preventing future pandemics.
“I want to set up an office within the chief medical officer of health office that just prepares for emergencies and uses simulations to build up the skillsets on an ongoing basis and report to the legislature on an annual basis on the state of preparedness in Ontario and work with our international and national and provincial partners to ensure that we always have a state of preparedness from a state of infection prevention and control vantage point to an ability to detect the viruses that are threats to us through a robust laboratory system as well as a robust Public Health response system and then always practice with our health system partners on preparedness as well. We will have lots of lessons learned on this outbreak and pandemic.”
Moore got a bit choked up when asked to reflect on the last 15 months and to select a high point and a low point.
“The high has actually been a long-term high, I’m very proud of our long-term care partners and our retirement home workers,” said Moore. “Both the workers that live in those environments, their patients, their clients and their essential care givers. I am very proud of the work that they’ve done. That is the high for me. If you look at the death rate across Ontario, we’ve had a remarkably low death rate and it’s from their dedication to those individuals that we’ve had a low death rate and now one of the highest immunization rates for their patients and workers. That’s been a high for me. The low was really when we started seeing variants of concern. When variants of concern started coming in I was questioning whether our immunization strategy was going to be effective. Whether we were going to be able to control the spread of these variants. That was a real concern. I actually didn’t anticipate this third wave. I thought we were making good progress, we had great case and contact management and we had a vaccine that would be very effective. Variants of concern and the mutation of this virus was the low for me because it threatened our entire strategy. We have to be very cautious with re-opening with more variants of concern around the globe. This virus basically wants to change two times a month that it’s changing its coat. It’s a little different to our immune system. So far these vaccines have been effective against most strains.”
On the topic of schools, Moore indicated he was hopeful of a return to in-class learning for June but will now shift focus to a safe return in the fall.
“I was disappointed that our schools aren’t open,” said Moore. “I’m sure parents, teachers, students are as well. We will have to then look forward to September. Our goal over the summer is to build immunization strategies for those 12 to 17 and ensure that we have a safe return to school in the fall. We’ll be cautious. We’ll still have infection prevention control practices in play and monitoring the situation throughout the summer. We’ve had great relationship with all of our school boards locally and really haven’t had any significant infections or outbreaks within the school setting. I would love us to keep that high track record up and the great partnership with all our boards moving forward.”
Moore closed out the call with a message to the residents of KFLA.
“I have a deep appreciation for our community,” said Moore. “All I can do is say thanks. I’ve received many kind words from our community I just have to say thanks to everyone that has contributed to our success here by reducing the spread of COVID-19, by reducing the impact on the hospitals and now coming forward to get immunized. I can’t thank you enough for your patience, for your kindness, your compassion. I just want to assure you that you will have another leader follow in my footsteps that will embrace this community and work diligently with this community to continue to promote your health, protect it and prevent illness. You have my assurance as chief medical officer of health that I will keep a very close eye on KFLA and make sure that you’re well protected.”