Peel Public Health’s capacity to contact trace is “increasingly being challenged” amid record numbers of COVID-19 cases, the top public health official for the region says.
Toronto Public Health ceased contact tracing for cases not associated with outbreaks back on Oct. 3 due to the extremely high case counts in the city.
For weeks, officials in neighbouring Peel Region insisted that they were not yet in a second wave of the pandemic because they were still able to trace the source of about 80 per cent of all infections.
That, however, changed last week when Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh acknowledged that the region was in a second wave.
One week later, Peel Region now has the highest case counts adjusted for population in Ontario at 103 new infections over the last seven-days for every 100,000 people.
“I must be clear. All of our metrics are going in the wrong direction. Peel is seeing the highest rates of cases and positivity in the province with much of that activity localized in Brampton and while Peel Public Health is still contact tracing our capacity is increasingly being challenged,” Loh said during a briefing on Wednesday morning. “I really need to urge Brampton please if Peel Public Health is calling you answer the phone and please work with us to help stop the spread. Too many people are not picking up the phone.”
Loh’s comments on Wednesday come one day after the Ford government announced that it would lift the modified Stage 2 restrictions in Peel, York and Ottawa in time for this weekend, allowing bars and restaurants to resume indoor dining service and gyms, casinos and cinemas to reopen.
Speaking with reporters, Loh said that the Stage 2 restrictions “may have come at just the right time” for Peel and could have had an impact in terms of “reducing the severity of the second wave” of the pandemic.
But he said that the region remains at a “precarious point.”
“With COVID-19 activity remaining high know that any contact with anyone outside of your immediate household could result in spread and while restaurants, bars and gyms will reopen and that is certainly is helpful for the wellbeing and livelihoods of the proprietors please remember that we do need to remain careful in those settings as well,” he warned.
Peel’s top doc recommends stricter private gathering limits
Loh said he has also put forward new recommendations to address the reopening of gyms, bars, and restaurants in the region on Saturday.
The recommendations, which Loh said were made to keep case counts under control, include stricter private social gathering limits, and postponement of wedding celebrations and other large gatherings.
"It is about balance. While these gyms and indoor dining are reopening, if we're going to possibly increase interaction and mixing on that side of the equation, then we need to address some of the other drivers of transmission," Loh said.
"The reality is that the more interactions and the more people you meet, the more possibility that you're going to encounter someone with COVID. Or if you have COVID, that you might be spreading it onto someone else."
He is also proposing that churches and other places of worship move their services online. Loh said there is data that there are outbreaks and exposures at these places.
"First of all, there's an increased risk with any of these gatherings which I am speaking to in that recommendation. And second of all, it's also about not just the risk specific to that community, but the broader risk of transmission, especially as other settings are starting to reopen as of Saturday," Loh said.
"I've certainly heard from many religious, and the opinions are across the spectrum, but my recommendation still stands."
When asked why Peel is not following Toronto's move of delaying the reopening of indoor dining and gyms, he said he does not have the power to do so.
"I certainly have put forward my recommendations to the Chief Medical Officer of Health ahead of the announcement that was made yesterday. But ultimately, the decision is being taken at the provincial level, and I think you would need to ask them as to the questions on the specific timing," he said.
"I'm really hoping that as this moves forward, all of us in our community will continue to take the steps that all of us need to be taking to make sure that this stays under control."
Loh said the mayors fully support these recommendations, which will be put forward to the regional council as public health is under their authority.
Mississauga Mayor Crombie admitted that it will be hard to enforce these measures, but she hopes that once they are publicly communicated, it will change people's behaviours.
"Let's not get together if we don't have to. This is not the time to be booking up your social calendar," Crombie said.
"It's our social gatherings in private settings that are driving our numbers, and we have to bring them down."
