Lambton’s medical officer of health was asked Wednesday by a county councilor when the health unit will start scaling back on daily COVID-19 case reporting.
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On the heels of similar moves by neighboring health units, Lambton public health officials previously said they planned to reduce how often they reported case counts due to the unreliability of those figures amid recent changes in testing criteria. There had been no timeline attached to the pullback.
“I think that we’re issuing a media release about it this week that includes the dates when it will start happening,” Dr. Sudit Ranade said Wednesday morning in response to Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley’s question during the first of two Lambton County committee meetings.
The press release, which came out later that afternoon, said starting next week figures will be updated every Monday – except for the upcoming stat holiday – Wednesday and Friday before 10 am The Chatham-Kent health unit starting keeping the same reporting schedule as of Feb. 7.
Lambton public health has been updating local figures on its website seven days per week for the majority of the pandemic, but Ranade has repeatedly said of late the number of cases being reported is a substantial underestimate due to limited testing and the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant.
Ranade also told the committee Wednesday some data previously broken down into categories will be suspended due to the potentially unreliable case counts. The health unit said in the statement this includes reporting of cases by age, sex, geography and source of acquisition; whether cases are active or resolved; cases per 100,000 people; and variant of concern lineage. Outbreak reporting will also be limited to congregate-living settings.
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SURGERIES, RESUMING PROCEDURES AT BLUEWATER HEALTH
Elective and non-urgent surgeries and procedures will be gradually resuming at Bluewater Health, the two-site hospital group said Wednesday.
The province issued a directive in December restricting those types of appointments amid the latest wave of the pandemic and a strain on the health-care system, especially intensive care. That order was recently lifted as the surge slowed, so the local hospital group will begin rescheduling those surgeries and procedures over the coming days, officials said.
Patients will be notified of opportunities to reschedule them.
“Those who are waiting for surgery will hear directly from their physician’s/surgeon’s office,” Bluewater Health said in a statement.
The hospital group added COVID-19 policies and procedures, including visitor restrictions, remain in place.
“Residents are reminded to seek care for urgent or emergent health concerns,” the health-care organization said.
NO NEW DEATHS OR OUTBREAKS
On the heels of the COVID-related death of the youngest Sarnia-Lambton on record, no new fatalities were reported Wednesday by public health or hospital officials.
The local death toll was still 121 Wednesday, the health unit reported. A total of 93 patients, including some people who lived elsewhere, have died in local hospital, Bluewater Health reported.
Nine COVID-positive patients were being treated, with one in intensive care. Seven were fully vaccinated.
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The vaccination status of the deceased in hospital or other local facilities has not been made available by officials due to privacy concerns.
Among people age five and older in Lambton, 79 per cent had two vaccine doses, 83 per cent had at least one, and 48 per cent had three, public health officials said.
Ranade said they’re still running vaccination clinics but at a slower pace. Output has dropped from 10,000 to 11,000 doses per week to about 2,000.
“I would anticipate it would go even lower over the next several weeks,” he said.
Meanwhile, there were still four active outbreaks. They included two long-term care homes, a congregative-living setting and a business.
Ranade said the institutional outbreaks have fundamentally been different, with “many” more cases but “dramatically lower” severe disease.
“Many people had symptoms that could be managed in the facility itself,” he said. “Of course, though, there have been a few fatalities from those outbreaks as well.”