Although COVID-19 restrictions are easing in Ontario, Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health is still urgent vigilance to help keep the community safe.
Dr. David Colby, speaking Feb. 24 during a weekly media call, said ongoing protests from those who want measures to end haven’t swayed his opinion.
“The political will is something that I try to ignore all the way along,” he said. “It’s my job to recommend and, if necessary, mandate measures that protect the health of people in the community, and that’s exactly the way I intend to conduct the way I operate.
“Whether we get future variants or not, no one can predict that. So, we’ll just have to see what happens, but trying to pretend the problem doesn’t exist is not the right way to handle it.”
Colby said Ontario’s numbers are “certainly trending in the right direction,” noting Chatham-Kent’s seven-day rolling average of new cases continues to decline.
“I’m a little concerned that our hospital occupancy is remaining a little higher than I would like to see,” Colby said. “I always have concerns. It ain’t over til it’s over.”
The doctor added that most people, “not necessarily the loudest and most prominent,” continues to strongly support public-health measures.
“We live in a democracy when everyone has a voice,” he said, “but the majority of people have adopted a sensible approach towards all this.”
Lori Marshall, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance president and CEO, said the hospital group will continue its mandatory vaccination policy for staff and “won’t be making any changes at this stage.”
Don Shropshire, the municipality’s top administrator, said Chatham-Kent’s COVID-19 policy will remain in place until the end of March.
“We’ll continue to do daily check-ins. Continue to require social distancing, wearing masks inside the buildings if you’re not seated at your work station or you’re less than two meters distant from each other,” he said.
“With the change, we’re going to see a variety of different responses from our employees. Some folks are going to look at it with a sigh of relief, and others are going to be nervous because there’s going to be, in their minds, fewer protections.
“We figured continuing on until the end of March would be a reasonable balance to respect those different opinions.”
Shropshire added that long-term care homes will continue to have a higher requirement for COVID-19 protocols.