'Our numbers are steadily falling': Chatham-Kent seeing COVID-19 cases decline

Chatham, Ont. -

“We have been one of the hot spots in Ontario. There’s no secret about that,“ says Dr. David Colby, Chathan-Kent’s medical officer of health.

COVID case rates in Chatham-Kent are still among the highest in Ontario, but the numbers are declining.

“We seem to be past the peak and are getting this wave under control,” says Colby

In a media conference call Thursday, Dr. Colby says although the numbers remain high, they will begin to trend downward.

“We are improving by leaps and bounds. Our active cases this morning are at 68. We were at 140. So they are rapidly dropping and improving and that’s exactly the direction we want to go,” says Colby.

With talks of the province loosening restrictions in Step 3, Colby is fine if businesses go back to full capacity, as long as everyone follows the rules.

“If our numbers hadn’t started dropping in CK that would make me very nervous indeed, but our numbers are steadily falling down,” says Colby. “As long as they maintain the vaccination provision in place that’s a reasonable step.”

In healthcare, the deadline for vaccination is two weeks away. According to CKHA CEO, Lori Marshall, 38 employees are still non-compliant with the policy for Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.

“We are sitting at 89% fully vaccinated and 7% partially vaccinated and will be by October 31. So 96% of our staff and we continue to work with those at this stage who have not indicated their intent to be vaccinated.” 78% of Chatham-Kent residents are fully vaccinated. Dr. Colby feels that’s still low, but says they continue to work at increasing their vaccination rate.

“It takes us about a week running pop-up clinics to edge that up by one percent a week,” says Colby. “I would hope we would reach the 80% in about two weeks.”