Don't plan holiday gatherings as a last hurrah before lockdown, region's top doctor says

Regional officials are warning anyone thinking about breaking the rules and having a Christmas gathering this weekend that it could extend the area's lockdown. 

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's medical officer of health, urged people to behave as though the region is in lockdown immediately. That means no social gatherings and only making trips out of the home for essential purposes, such as to go to the grocery store, doctor's appointments or work.

She said people need to stop having social interactions including outdoors, even though the province's lockdown framework allows up to 10 people to get together outside.

"If we think that it's OK to continue to socialize and maybe even up our socialization because we won't have a chance to later, we're actually going to make things much worse for us and put us in a position in Waterloo region where we may not be able to exit lockdown measures," she said Tuesday.

Wang said case numbers are expected to continue to climb even after lockdown on Saturday but then should start to flatten. If people socialize over Christmas, it will take longer for cases to start to flatten.

"You can't stop that moving train quickly — right away, so if we're on an escalating trend, and we continue that into the beginning of the lockdown, it will just make it harder for us to slow down the spread, turn it around. And in that case, four weeks may not be enough," she said.

'A lot longer than 28 days'

Bruce Laucker, the region's CAO, says he'd like to think most people won't need reminding not to gather and that they'll follow the public health guidance.

"It's going to take everyone in the community to heed these guidelines, and if we don't do that, then businesses are going to suffer, children are going to suffer, everyone's going to suffer because we're going to be in lockdown a lot longer than 28 days," he said.

When asked what message she had for people about people planning to gather, regional Chair Karen Redman responded with one word: "Don't."

"This is something that's within all of our control to do," Redman added. 

She said she's heard from hospital workers who told her about situations where they return home from work exhausted only to see a party being held up the street.

"If you're not going to do it for the community, you should do it for all the people that are putting themselves in harm's way in order to make this community safe," she said. "In many ways, it's the least we can do."