Official worried Niagara getting too lax in COVID-19 prevention
‘The pandemic is not over,’ warns acting medical officer of health
He has fretted about it for weeks, and recent behaviour by Niagara residents taking advantage of warm weather and the economic reopening has done little to ease the fears of Dr. Mustafa Hirji.
Over the weekend, as the temperature rose above 30 C and businesses everywhere reopened, people who have been in pandemic lockdown for months gathered on patios and beaches.
But photos of some of those places, including some Niagara beaches, bespoke a lack of concern for infection control. Physical distancing and masks appear to be the exception rather than the rule in some locations. And given how COVID-19 has spread easily among big gatherings in the United States, Hirji worries about the increased spread of the novel coronavirus in Niagara.
“I worry about this a lot,” said Hirji. “It does seem that some people are taking the reopening as a sign that this is over, and they can, you know, return to their previous behaviours. But that is not the case. The pandemic is not over.”
Hirji said Stage 2 of the reopening is not written in stone. If cases spike, the region can be forced back into lockdown. And even if the reopening doesn’t collapse, Niagara is a long way from a pre-pandemic normal.
“It is a slow, phased-in approach. We have to get through Phase 2 without having to reimpose those measures and then go onto Phase 3,” he said. “Beyond that is going to be the new normal that will have to persist until we have a vaccine.”
That said, Hirji said Niagara is not Florida, where beachgoers helped fuel viral spread, and the risk here is lower than it is in the Sunshine State.
Where Florida never got control of the virus spread before reopening, Niagara sees a low daily case count.
On Thursday, for instance, Niagara had three new confirmed COVID-19 cases. Two were connected to a previous case and the other is an essential
worker who is employed on the American side of the border.
In Florida, the daily case count is presently in the thousands.
Despite his concerns, however, Hirji remains disinclined to follow the actions of his Guelph counterpart or his colleagues in Alberta in calling for mandatory masking in public.
In Guelph, the medical officer of health issued an order making masks mandatory in businesses for customers and staff. And in Alberta, every medical officer of health in the province has urged the provincial government to make masks mandatory in public after a rise in cases in some jurisdictions.
Hirji said nothing in the past week has changed his previous view that it is not the place of the public health department to issue such a sweeping order that should come from elected officials.
Moreover, he said while masks are useful, they are not the foolproof anti-virus shield some people appear to believe they are.
“Masks are your second line of defence,” Hirji said. “Why would you make your second line of defence mandatory but not your first and best line of defence, which is physical distancing?”
He said people have become “enamoured” with masks, but points out their recommended use is as an extra layer of protection when physical distancing is not possible. They are not meant to take the place of physical distancing.
Hirji said as the reopening of the economy heads into its first full week, the health department has been receiving calls about businesses or other locations where infection control measures — including distancing and masking — are not being followed.
“If you see that happening, our recommendation is that first, you raise it with the business owner or manager and if you want to take a step further, you should bring it to the attention of your municipality’s bylaw office and they will handle it,” Hirji said.