Colby prepared to tighten restrictions if “things go off the rails”
Jenna Cocullo, Local Journalism Initiative
CK Public Health has reported four new cases of COVID-19 since Thursday afternoon.
Cumulatively, 173 cases have struck Chatham-Kent, with 13 still active.
Twelve individuals are self-isolating while one resident is being hospitalized.
To date, one person passed away from COVID-19 in the municipality. One contract worker who worked for Greenhill Produce but lived in Essex County died as well.
Dr. David Colby, Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health, told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday that if physically distancing is not maintained while the economy reopens, then numbers can spike again. In that case, he would be prepared to revert back to previous pandemic restrictions.
“We will have to tighten things up again if things go off the rails,” he said.
Colby said there is no “hard number” that would determine whether or not he adds restrictions. Rather, he will be looking at indicators such as the number of people hospitalized, active cases in the community and how quickly individuals are getting infected. Isolated outbreak incidents, which do not affect the whole municipality, will not be a factor in his decisions.
“I would be looking at more of a general community spread that would make me consider taking those kinds of measures,” he said. “I think it’ll be very difficult. I think once people have had a taste for freedom I think they’ll be very reluctant to regress.”
Colby also reminded the public that masks are not a substitute for physical distancing, which is much more effective for stopping the spread of COVID-19. Masks will not be mandatory in the municipality.
For those planning to travel to nearby counties, Middlesex-London Health Unit’s medical officer of health Chris Mackie, issued an order making masks mandatory indoors. Lambton County’s council recently rejected the idea of making masks mandatory and left it up to each individual municipality within the county. Windsor-Essex already has an order in place requiring a mask to be worn at any establishment open to the public that offers goods or services.
