Thunder Bay – NEWS – COVID-19 numbers in the Thunder Bay District have been climbing. Over the past week, the total number of active cases has soared to 257 cases.
Many are wondering why we have not seen a rapid move back to the lockdown.
Schools across the city have outbreaks of COVID-19. Everyday it seems there are new reports from the Health Unit of new outbreaks.
NetNewsLedger asked Premier Ford’s office why, when the number of cases in our health unit reporting area were soaring to numbers similar to York, Peel and Toronto on a cases per 100,000 ratio, the region was not being put into the Grey-Lockdown mode.
“The province will continue to monitor local trends of key public health indicators across the province to determine if public health units should stay where they are or be moved into a different level. Public health units will stay in their level for a minimum of 28 days, or two COVID-19 incubation periods, at which time, the government will assess the impact of public health measures to determine if the public health unit should stay where they are or be moved to a different level”, was the answer we received.
Perhaps that was not enough.
Ryan Imgrund, a COVID-19 bio-statistician says that “Governments need to look at the reproductive value – not just case counts – as it predicts where the numbers will go”.
“Using Thunder Bay as an example they are currently in the Red-Control zone but they are showing Grey-Lockdown numbers,” continued Imgrund. “We knew they would start to show Grey numbers because they’ve had a reproductive number significantly above one for three to four weeks now. And we know that when we see cases go up, we shouldn’t be surprised that all of a sudden Yellow becomes Orange and Orange becomes Red.”
Perhaps the question isn’t that we likely are headed back to the Grey-Lockdown, but why we moved out of that zone.
Perhaps, since the surge in cases actually started during the lockdown the question must be asked why people seemingly just gave up following the instructions and guidelines that have been in our faces for almost a year now.
We are seeing the numbers of patients in the hospital continue to rise. At last report from the TBDHU there are 18 people in hospital including 4 in the Intensive Care Ward. The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has increased the size of the COVID-19 Ward to accommodate the growing number of patients.
It would be simplistic to suggest the blame should fall on the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, or Mayor Bill Mauro, or Premier Doug Ford.
It could be simply said that in the Thunder Bay District, the fault lies with people who seemingly are unwilling to follow the guidelines.
It could simply be said there is enough blame to go around over the growing number of COVID-19 cases.
If for years there were real efforts to solve the addiction crisis in Ontario, it is possible the Outbreak in the Thunder Bay District Jail and Correctional Centre wouldn’t have happened.
If there is a lesson in the pandemic for our city perhaps it is that solving the base problems in our city should be made a larger priority than expanded sports facilities.
It appears for many the move out of the Grey-Lockdown to Red-Control was and is being treated like it signalled the end of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
It has not, and we are now reaping the whirlwind we have sown.
Moving back to the Grey-Lockdown immediately is likely a foregone conclusion right now.
That after a year, people seem weary of the fight tells many that our times have many who are not as capable of sacrifice as past generations of Canadians.
That those choosing selfish over selfless are impacting the health of so many is simply just as maddening as it is sad to see.
As always, this is just my opinion. As always your mileage may vary.
James Murray
