You will have a better idea if your neighbours have tested positive for COVID-19.

Lambton County Councillors have approved a plan that will see information about COVID-19 in more specific geographic regions with a population around 20,000 people.

On Sept. 2, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley had asked that each municipality’s numbers reported out. At the time, he suggested it would be helpful information to prove whether mandatory mask bylaws in larger municipalities are effective.

But Lambton’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sudit Ranade, and several politicians from small communities voiced concern about the idea saying releasing the information would lead to speculation and even identification of people with the virus.

Lambton County already releases some geographic data based on cases in urban (Sarnia and Point Edward) and rural areas. Currently 69 per cent of the cases of COVID-19 have been in urban areas, 31 per cent in rural Lambton.

Sarnia City/County Councillor David Boushey said that shouldn’t be a reason to withhold the information.

“If this deadly virus hit me, I want my family, friends, and community to know so I can get support – there is no shame in it…It’s no big deal.”

But Point Edward Mayor, Bev Hand, disagreed. There had been a case in her community of 2,000 but she was only aware of it because it was a close friend. “The family wanted to keep it totally to themselves,” she says. “In a small community, it is hard to keep a secret like that.”

But Sarnia City/County Councillor Brian White says the information will help with complacency in the communities where people believe the virus isn’t present. “They may not be being terrible people – far from it – but maybe they feel like we can engage in other activities that are less than safe,” he says.

Originally, Bradley wanted each municipality broken out, however councillors agreed to report information in three regions – Sarnia and Point Edward; Petrolia, Enniskillen, Brooke-Alvinston, Oil Springs, Dawn-Euphemia and St. Clair; and then Lambton Shores, Plympton Wyoming and Warwick. The information in Sarnia and Point Edward would be further broken down into groups of 20,000 people.

While the medical officer of health offered up the options, Ranade also warned there is flaws in the idea.

“From a public health perspective, the interpretation of geographic data as being materially connected to current COVID-19 risk is problematic,” he wrote in his report to councillors saying the reported numbers will reflect what happened one or two weeks ago.

“Geographic COVID-19 data is vulnerable to the false presumption of risk in a place or setting in which a case was identified, as well as the false presumption of safety in a place or setting in which a case is not identified.

“Also, the place of residence of a case may not indicate the place of exposure of the case,” he says. For example someone from Lambton may attend a social gathering in London and become ill.

“It is therefore important the public health measures to prevent COVID-19 are emphasized and followed regardless of the geographic distribution of cases in the county,” says Ranade including keeping physical distance between yourself and people around you, washing your hands frequently, socializing with small groups of people and wearing a mask where social distances can’t be maintained.