BARRIE, ONT. -- Thanksgiving weekend comes with a warning from health experts to connect with family from a distance.
CTV's Madison Erhardt talks with Dr. Dan Lee, chief of emergency at Georgian Bay General Hospital.
Madison: With COVID cases on the rise, are you worried people will be afraid to go to the emergency department?
Dr. Lee: I think we're seeing a little bit of that right now, but it doesn't compare to the beginning of the pandemic, because we had quite a substantial decrease in our volumes.
I would say in the beginning of the pandemic, our volumes went down by 50, even 60 per cent back in March and April.
In the past two to three weeks, we've been seeing a little bit of a decrease on average before the pandemic. We would see about 120 patients a day, and that's decreased a little bit to 105 right now.
Madison: Thanksgiving weekend would typically be busy in the emergency department. What are you expecting this year?
Dr. Lee: I think we will probably see a little bit of an increase in the trend, which we could accommodate right now. We still see a little less volume overall.
We're still seeing some increases on the usual days we would see it, like Monday is our busiest day, and not unlike any other emergency in the province, so we're still seeing those trends.
Madison: What do you think people are still not understanding about this virus and how it's transmitted?
Dr. Lee: Within the community, I think people are actually doing a pretty good job of washing their hands, being physically distanced and also wearing a face covering.
We do know that in the second wave, which we seem to be in right now, that we're seeing a lot more cases that started off in Toronto and Ottawa and the larger urban areas, and so I think the big concern is that going into the Thanksgiving weekend, how much is there going to be more mixing and spreading of the virus at that time.
We do know that our local health in Simcoe Muskoka is urging people to stay within their household just to prevent that spread because the cases are increasing, and we wouldn't to see it spread to our more vulnerable population.
