Time for 'longer-term approach' to COVID-19, Waterloo region public health official says

Waterloo region continues to see stable or improving trends for COVID-19 with the peak of the Omicron wave over.

"We are now shifting to a longer-term approach to living differently with and managing the impacts of COVID-19," Dr. Rabia Bana, associate medical officer of health for Region of Waterloo Public Health, said in a media briefing on Friday.

Part of that is that some rules around isolation have changed, Bana noted.

Household contacts of people with COVID-19 should self isolate with the following exceptions:

• People aged 18 and older who have two doses and booster of the COVID-19 vaccine.
• People under the age of 18 who are considered fully vaccinated with two doses.
• People who have tested positive COVID-19 within the previous 90 days as long as they are asymptomatic.

Bana noted that since the province started lifting pandemic restrictions at the end of January, local data and trends have shown the risks of COVID-19 are lower now than during the Omicron wave.

"It's not zero, we're not out of this yet," she warned, but added people can continue to take personal precautions to avoid spreading or catching the virus.

"Masking is still available to us as a tool," she said.

With mask mandates lifting on March 21 in most settings in the province, she said it's "expected and quite natural" for people to have different comfort levels with new regulations. But she said with the period of adjustment, it's also important for the community to be respectful of people who choose to continue to wear a mask.

19 people in hospital with COVID-19

Friday's update from public health showed there were 53 new cases of COVID-19 in the region, although that number is considered below the actual number of cases because not everyone is eligible for public health testing of the virus.

There were 19 people with COVID-19 in Waterloo region's hospitals and seven people were in the intensive care unit either infectious with the virus or recovering from it.

There were six active outbreaks in the region: three in hospitals and three in congregate care settings. There were no outbreaks in long-term care or retirement homes.

March break vaccine clinics

Public health will vaccination clinics at schools over the March break next week.

David Aoki, director of infectious diseases for public health, said the clinics will help students get their doses to be better protected in the classroom as mask mandates are lifted.

"We want to see everyone vaccinated," he said. "It's a self protection measure but it is a social protection."

The March break walk-in clinics run from 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. the following dates and places:

• Wednesday at Monsignor Doyle Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge.
• Wednesday at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge.
• Thursday at St. Mary's Catholic High School in Kitchener.
• Thursday at the secondary school at 650 Laurelwood Dr. in Waterloo (formerly Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary).
• Friday at Huron Heights Secondary School in Kitchener.
• Friday at Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School in Baden.