Sault Area Hospital doctor encouraging people not to travel during holidays

The organization representing Ontario's hospitals is calling for hospitals across the province to prepare for a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The OHA said it must "reluctantly and with deep regret" ask the provincial government to "implement and robustly enforce" four-week lockdowns in all public health units where the weekly incidence rate is 40 per 100,000 or more, a key threshold for the red tier. 

In northern Ontario, infection rates are much lower with districts anywhere from green to orange.

But with holiday travel, the situation could change quickly, says Dr. Lucas Castellani, medical director of infection prevention and control at the Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste Marie.

He's telling people they should take steps on their own to isolate, particularly if moving between regions.

"We also have to do a bit of risk mitigation and harm reduction here also. We have to make very clear that, if you did travel or you do have visitors, you need to have a quarantine period. So either that's a quarantine period for yourself after they leave or, ideally, it's a quarantine period for that person that's visiting you prior to them coming."

Castellani says infected people may feel fine for the first few days after visiting and test negative, but develop the symptoms soon after.

Castellani says he's encouraging people not to travel during the holiday season.

"And, if you can avoid it, you probably shouldn't have visitors from outside of the area. The problem is, though, you can't stop anyone from moving across our country and within our province. There's no laws or regulations for that," he said.

Northern Ontario residents are "doing such a good job through the pandemic, and I'd like to ask again that everyone continue to do what they've been doing, even though this is probably the hardest time of the year to do it — the holidays, when everyone wants to be with their loved ones."

Castellani notes that as the vaccine rolls out, "probably somewhere around six months, we may see more vaccine distribution and more people vaccinated and we may see better protection. But right now, we just have to roll up our sleeves and just work a little bit harder for a little while longer."

The OHA's request comes as hospitalization figures in Ontario all reached second-wave highs this week. The OHA said that its member hospitals are struggling to keep up with current needs while working to catch up on about 150,000 procedures that were postponed during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.

"Evidence is mounting that the hidden toll on human health from this disruption in scheduled services will be heavy. Our communities are tired, and so are those caring for them," the OHA's Board of Directors statement said.

Sudbury's Health Sciences North President and CEO Dominic Giroux is a member of that board.

At the province's daily news conference Thursday, Premier Doug Ford said he appreciates the OHA's input, and he talks to hospital CEOs every day. The premier did not, however, commit to any further lockdown measures.

"It's very, very concerning, the situation we're facing right now," he said. "Right now, everything is on the table. We always take the advice from the medical experts."

Ford said he was not considering any sort of curfew, which has been seen in some places in the world particularly hard hit by the virus.