Colby fears COVID-19 restrictions will prompt greater travel within Ontario

Tom Morrison
Nov 18, 2020  •  November 27, 2020  •  2 minute read
Dr. David Colby is medical officer of health for Chatham-Kent. Peter Epp photo

Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health has said he is concerned Ontario’s new system for imposing restrictions on jurisdictions with higher rates of COVID-19 infections will lead to more travel between parts of the province.

Providing an update to the Chatham-Kent Board of Health, Dr. David Colby the provincial situation with the novel coronavirus “continues to be very concerning” with between 1,200 and 1,500 new cases each day.

He noted these cases are mostly centred on the Toronto, Peel, Durham, York, Ottawa and Hamilton region, while “the rest of the province is not doing too badly.”

The province recently started using a colour-coded system to add more restrictions to public health unit jurisdictions with more concerning case levels. As of Nov. 18, Chatham-Kent is still at the Green-Prevent level, which has the fewest restrictions.

The province can move regions into the Yellow-Protect, Orange-Restrict or Red-Control levels, with red having the most restrictions.

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“This is advantageous because it keeps the economy of most of the province moving, but it also creates problems when you have different restrictions in adjacent jurisdictions,” Colby said of the new system.

“What does this do to stop people from moving from a high-prevalence jurisdiction to a low-prevalence jurisdiction? It’s exactly what we do not want to happen. We want people to stay put.”

Sarnia-Lambton is also still at the green stage, while the Windsor-Essex, Middlesex-London and Southwestern jurisdictions are currently at the yellow stage.

Colby said the situation in Chatham-Kent is “a lot different than it is in most jurisdictions in Ontario” because community transmission has not been a problem. The CK Public Health website lists 40 cases where the exposure type is unknown, but all of these have been resolved as of Nov. 18.

“What really makes medical officers of health nervous are cases where you don’t know where they come from, so it’s out there in the community spreading in ways that no one knows and we find these positives that cannot be linked,” Colby said.

“That is not happening here in Chatham-Kent. We do not have any unlinked cases. It is a marvelous accomplishment. All of our cases are associated with close contacts or they are part of an established outbreak.”

When contact tracers follow the infection line, they find a link outside of Chatham-Kent, Colby said. He said this is why he is concerned about locals visiting high-prevalent jurisdictions “and having close contact with potential sources of infection” or people from those areas visiting Chatham-Kent.

“It’s very difficult to get this across,” he said. “People still need to take very strong precautions and there is a lot of fatigue out there. People are unhappy that this is continuing so long.”

As of the afternoon of Nov. 18, Chatham-Kent has 30 active cases with three workplace outbreaks. The health unit also reports one person in hospital.