The local variant of concern outbreak locally, and how Sudbury and Simcoe-Muskoka and districts were grappling with COVID put us in lockdown said Dr. Jim Chirico, Medical Officer of Health today in a rare news conference.
Our district moved into the red zone today, meaning businesses can reopen with strict public health measures in place. Chirico says he's supportive of the move to slowly ease into reopening "in a responsible manner."
Chirico acknowledged that over the past couple of weeks there was "much public debate" over his recommendation to remain in shutdown with the stay-at-home order in place, despite a relatively low case count, but defended his actions.
"Case counts and hospital capacity are very important factors in determining how much we can reopen but not the only factors," he stated.
He said there are two other issues that played a key role in determining the recommendation to remain in shutdown, those being the status of infection and reopening level in neighbouring jurisdictions and the presence of variants of concern in our district.
"We are not an island," explained Chirico.
"If we progressed to a green zone surrounded by red or grey zones, human nature is such that people would travel to our region resulting in the potential for increased virus spread. That, coupled with our region having the largest spread of percentage of COVID 19 cases being variants of concern provided simply too much risk for our health unit"
Chirico claims the decision to remain in shutdown with the stay-at-home order in effect wasn't easy.
"I know it was difficult for all of us, for our mental health, for our financial wellbeing, and for our social health. It wasn't easy."
He added the quickest route to reopening is avoiding the temptation to open early.
"As we slowly open I am optimistic we will continue on a positive course."
But Chirico cautions that if we continue to improve, the area will progress toward easing restriction but the opposite is also true.
"If our situation worsens we'll have no choice but to put in place further public health measures." But Chirico says he's hopeful that won't be the case.
