Ontario's retiring chief medical officer of health (CMOH) and the newly appointed chief medical officer were unanimous Thursday in their approach not to rush too quickly into reopening Ontario for fear that the province could stumble into a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thursday's public health briefing featured Dr. David Williams who spoke at his final news conference, along with Dr. Kieran Moore, the new CMOH whose appointment takes effect on Saturday.
On taking media questions about whether Ontario is moving quickly enough to move into Step Two of the reopening plan, both Williams and Moore said Ontario residents had earned the right to have Step Two happen two days early by meeting vaccination milestones, but they both cautioned against moving too fast.
Williams said the uptake in vaccines this week was unexpectedly high.
"We have set two records in daily maximum vaccinations; over 217,000 doses in the last two days, each day," said Williams.
He said that was one of the key reasons why Ontario is moving to Step Two on June 30, two days ahead of the original schedule. At the same time, Williams said some parts of Ontario have seen upsurges in COVID-19 cases with the Delta Variant.
Williams said it was important "to contain these outbursts, if I may say, in our populations where we have under-vaccinated or unfortunately unvaccinated clusters of people."
Williams was also questioned why Ontario is only just planning to move to Step Two when it had already passed the vaccination milestones. Williams replied that vaccinations were just one of the health indicators and reminded the briefing that many of the vaccine shots won't be fully effective for another week and a half.
He added that even though roughly 75 per cent of Ontario residents had received their first dose of vaccine, that means that one in four people in Ontario are not vaccinated.
"That's a significant number of people that can, if they're clustered together, cause outbreaks. And we've reports in Europe where they've seen upsurges in Delta in the U.S. in some parts. So we can't be too casual. We have to watch how this handles," said Williams.
He said while everyone is in a rush to open up Ontario, Williams said he doesn't want to see the Ontario population rush out and then be forced back into lockdown. He encouraged people to be patient.
Moore followed Williams comments by adding there is still a concern about the Delta Variant where it is showing up in some hot spots in Ontario, such as the Waterloo region.
"I do believe a slow and cautious approach is warranted with Delta becoming a major strain in Ontario," said Moore.
"We're also learning that one dose of vaccine is somewhat protective against the Delta strain, but two doses is highly protective," he added. He encouraged more Ontario residents to take steps to get their second doses.
Moore said vaccinations are also important, but so are the level of hospitalizations in different parts of Ontario.
"We're watching Waterloo, and Porcupine, and North Bay and now Grey-Bruce and activity levels in those regions," said Moore. He added he was pleased to see the case numbers dropping in Toronto, Peel and York regions.
Moore added that Ontario will have to keep watching cases closely for at least a year to ensure that a new wave of the pandemic does not erupt.
"We must over the next year maintain a case and contact management strategy that is robust; that can put out any fires that start, as well as having a testing strategy that can identify the next strain that is circulating," said Moore.
He issued a warning also for travellers since he said 90 per cent of the world is not yet immunized. He said our health security is still being threatened by international travel.
"That's where the virus continues to circulate, where mutations will develop and any returning traveller could bring the virus back into Canada at any given time," said Moore.
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com. He covers health care in Northern Ontario.
