With very few public health restrictions remaining and a return to full capacity for indoor settings, the region’s medical officer of health is urging people to weigh the risk before attending a large gathering or public event.
Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit said without capacity limits, the risks go up.
Gardner said it’s up to individuals to decide what level of risk they’re comfortable with.
Though the doctor would have liked to see a slower lifting of public health restrictions in Ontario, he acknowledged the provincial decision was made based on a balance of factors from public health risk to the economy.
“People need to be aware there is still quite a high transmission rate and they need to decide for themselves the level of risk they are going to take on,” said Gardner. “One way to reduce personal risk is to be very judicial about choosing what you're going to do.”
Though the province’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, has indicated the potential for mask requirements to also be lifted in March, Gardner said he’d like to see those mandates stay in place.
“Mask use is important because it is relatively easy to do without a cost to businesses, and it significantly reduces the risk of transmission,” said Gardner. “It’s safe and easy to do … I would be advocating that it continue.”
Proof of vaccination requirements, as they existed until March 1, may have run their course according to the local medical officer of health.
“I believe that was very helpful to us when we had the Delta wave … because you had a high degree of protection against transmission with two doses of vaccine at that time,” said Gardner.
However, the Omicron variant proved able to spread even among the double vaccinated with little interference from immunization. Though the vaccines appeared to offer higher levels of protection against severe outcomes such as hospitalization and death.
Both Moore and Gardner have said the proof of vaccination rules in place during Omicron did help protect unvaccinated people by preventing them from accessing more high-risk settings where they might contract COVID-19 and face severe symptoms.
“That is certainly an important goal, but it isn’t the same as the other goals achieved formerly,” said Gardner. “Reducing transmission … I don’t believe was being achieved.”
He said the province could have made the proof of vaccination requirement for three doses, but anticipated that would have been a difficult move given only about half the eligible population has received three doses of COVID vaccines.
“It’s really important people continue with a multi-layer approach,” said Gardner. Noting that includes self-monitoring and staying home when sick, vaccination including a booster shot, wearing a mask, and carefully considering the size of groups you socialize with while indoors.
“We still have a significant amount of transmission happening in our communities,” said Gardner.
Week-over-week case counts have been declining or at least plateauing with 695 cases reported in the region for the week of Feb. 13-19 and 568 cases reported during the week of Feb. 20-26.
Case counts, however, are underestimated because not everyone is eligible for a provincial lab test, even if they have symptoms of COVID.
Hospitalization and ICU rates have been the highest ever for the region during the Omicron wave, according to Gardner.
Recent wastewater surveillance from Collingwood indicated a jump in SARS-COV-2 RNA, the virus that causes COVID-19, in local wastewater, but it's unclear if that indicates an actual increase in transmission or if it is an outlier.
“We get samples once a week, and we’ll be looking at the next sample to see if that jump is repeated or not,” said Gardner.
In the other communities – Barrie, Orillia, and Midland – wastewater samples have shown a plateau in the presence of the virus that’s lower than the height of the Omicron wave in January, but high compared to the rest of the pandemic.
COVID transmission is still high, so weigh the risks, urges Gardner - OrilliaMatters
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