Medical officer of health says vaccine needed ‘as soon as possible’ as count hits 999

Sobering words from Lambton’s Medical Officer of Health – we need to focus on preventing death from COVID-19 including getting the vaccine to Lambton as quickly as possible.

Dr. Sudit Ranade talked with reporters Monday about the rapidly rising rate of COVID-19 infections in Lambton. Lambton’s statistics showed the county on the cusp of an unenviable record registering 999 people with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

The number of people in Lambton infected has been rising rapidly since mid-December. Since Dec. 20, 482 people have tested positive for the virus – a 48 per cent increase. The previous nine-and-a-half months 517 people tested positive.

Statistics from the University of Toronto show Lambton had the second highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the province with 34.6 cases per 100,000 people Monday. Only Windsor-Essex is higher with a rate of over 48 cases per 100,000. Toronto, Peel and York follow.

There were 65 people in Lambton who received a COVID-19 positive diagnosis, Lambton Public Health reported Monday. Another 34 had recovered and there are now 293 people actively fighting the virus – up 31. That includes six people in hospital.

The increasing number of people infected prompted Bluewater Health to change its visitor policy, allowing just one person for labouring mothers, children, those having urgent surgery and at the end of their life.

https://petrolialambtonindependent.ca/2021/01/04/only-one-visitor-for-bluewater-health-patients-starting-wednesday/

As has been seen across the province, when the number of people in the community infected with COVID-19 increases, long term care homes soon are dealing with the virus. There are six Lambton homes considered in outbreak having at least one case in staff or residents. Lambton Meadowview in Petrolia, North Lambton Lodge, Village on the St. Clair, Trillium Villa, Afton Park Place and Vision Nursing Home are all dealing with cases in staff and residents.

One third of the province’s 626 long term care homes are dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks.

Ranade expressed concern that as the number of cases rise in Lambton, the elderly both in long term care and in the community, are vulnerable.

“There’s a certain point at which it becomes very challenging to think about cases and prevented cases and reducing the number of cases and you have to move to a strategy that is about achieving some different goals, which are preventing death, which are ensuring that essential systems can still continue to function,” says Ranade.

“And I think we’re very quickly moving – if we have not already moved – into that space.

“The most consistent factor linked to mortality with COVID-19 is age. The people in high-risk settings like long term care and often retirement homes, need to be protected. And also people who are living independently who are over the age of 80, especially, and 70s probably, need to make sure that they’re taking specific precautions around limiting their exposure to other people,” Ranade added.

Ranade says when the COVID-19 vaccines begin to arrive in Lambton – likely late January or early February – he wants to be sure those in long term care get it first to reduce seniors’ risks of getting COVID-19. About 70 per cent of the deaths in Ontario have been seniors in long term care.

Lambton officials have already been working on a rollout plan for the vaccine and Ranade says once they arrive, public health could start putting needles in the arm “very, very quickly.”

In the meantime, Ranade says public health workers are doing the best they can to deal with the large number of people with COVID-19 and tracing the contacts they have made, but it is tiring.

Ranade says public health workers do as much as they can to help those who have COVID-19 “talking to people and getting really connected to those people…we know about their families, we know about all the things that are going on with them. We also feel the same when their stories take a turn for the worse…because we’ve been so involved with them.

“I definitely would say that we are tired. We are persevering, but it’s been a long haul for all of us doing this work.”

And the workload isn’t about to get lighter soon. Ranade says Lambton’s numbers are high because people were involved in social events long before Christmas “so that damage essential has been done.” And he says we’re unlikely to see the affects of the provincial lockdown for sometime because there are still a lot of places people interact with each other – including workplaces.

“I think we need to start thinking more about not the day-to-day numbers or the week-to-week numbers, but the importance of getting the vaccine here as soon as possible, be distributing it as soon as possible and…continuing with all the public health measures that keep people safe.”

Ranade added when the province was laying out its strategy for vaccines, Lambton’s COVID-19 rates were among the lowest in the province. If the government were to re-evaluate now, (which it is not) Lambton would be among the communities which should receive it first.