Through on-and-off lockdowns, new variants and nearly constant uncertainty, Chatham-Kent officials never imagined the pandemic would have lasted this long.
Two years into the COVID-19’s arrival in the municipality, there has been much learned, and although the situation has eased, the fight against the virus still continues.
“I think the biggest fear from my own perspective was not knowing how this was going to roll out,” said Dr. David Colby, medical officer of health, during the March 10 media call, admitting that the devastation of the Spanish flu a century ago was weighing on his mind.
It quickly became apparent the virus wouldn’t be defeated through a stay-at-home order, along with business and school shutdowns, over the course of a few weeks.
Provincial mandates, such as physical distancing and mandatory masking, were implemented in an effort to buy time and ease the burden on the health-care system until vaccines could be deployed the following year.
Virtual meetings, such as municipal council, have continued for the most part to this day in the wake of the Delta and Omicron variants.
Working from home quickly became commonplace and has become a permanent fixture for many companies, especially those that are office-based and can conduct business remotely.
“I never really thought that we would be continuing for the next two years in this mode,” Colby said. “I thought it would be something that blasted through with great fury and then settled down.
“It’s been quite a ride. How many times do I say at these scrums that I can’t predict the future? And I couldn’t then.”
As for the human toll, 58 Chatham-Kent residents lost their lives to the virus since 2020.
In total, there have been 7,035 confirmed cases as of March 11, which is an underestimate due to testing capacity.
Lori Marshall, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance president and CEO, said she was “filled with trepidation” two years ago but that she had full confidence in the organization and her team to get through it.
“We would do whatever was required in order to help save lives and to protect the citizens of Chatham-Kent,” she said. “I believe that we put that mission. It has been a long time.”
Marshall added that Chatham-Kent’s experience has fortunately been “dramatically different” compared to some other areas of Ontario, Canada and the world.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said he was concerned with the expectation of skyrocketing caseloads and the resulting impact on health and the local economy.
“(And) what it was going to do to society as a whole,” he said. “I never imagined that we’d be two years later talking about this and hopefully (we can) end it with a two-year anniversary.”
Canniff thanked everyone involved in doing their part to keep the community safe and running as well as possible.
Colby said the pandemic brought a great deal of anxiety, but that public health staff, in co-operation with other health-care organizations and front-line workers, met the challenge admirably.
“Everybody worked together and I think hit the ball out of the park,” he said. “After they got into the swing of things, then it became the new normal. … We are still feeling the effects of that in the way that we’re running the health unit.”