BARRIE, ONT. -- COVID-19 numbers across Simcoe Muskoka are on a steady rise.
CTV's Madison Erhardt chats with Simcoe Muskoka health unit's associate medical officer of health, Dr. Colin Lee, about what people should do to keep numbers at bay.
Madison: The province reports the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 is doubling every 10 to 12 days. What do you think when you hear these numbers and see the increase in cases locally?
Dr. Lee: It is concerning because the virus can go unchecked and multiply in the number of cases.
What I am seeing also is people are really redoubling their efforts to try to physically distance and decrease their social interactions to only their household. I have confidence that we are able to flatten the curve and bring that curve down very quickly.
Madison: We are starting to see more cases in schools. What happens when a student or teacher tests positive?
Dr. Lee: When we do get a case of COVID, we work very quickly to try to figure out who in the school is the highest risk and who needs to be quarantined at home for 14 days after the last exposure. We inform them either from the school or the health unit.
Madison: Thanksgiving is coming up. How should people plan to connect?
Dr. Lee: This year, I am urging people to consider gathering outside of their household. Those large gatherings with extended families; let's postpone them and keep it maybe online.
These next four weeks are crucial, and we need to keep the virus from having an opportunity to jump from person to person.
Madison: What is concerning you the most right now?
Dr. Lee: I think what is concerning me the most, to tell you the truth, is the unknown in the next four weeks.
Are our efforts from the last two weeks and even increased efforts moving forward going to be enough to see numbers on the decline?
If it doesn't, and it seeps into our more vulnerable population, like our elderly, we do not want to see this happen. We do not want to see it overwhelm our hospitals and ICU beds.
