On December 30th, Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health for KFL&A, gave his final community update for 2020. In the video, Dr. Moore said that he and his team continue to monitor COVID-19 spread throughout the community during the holiday. Their team is particularly concerned about the effect that socialization will have during both Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The 10 new cases that were announced on December 30th were related to out of region travel, Dr. Moore explains. Moore believes that individuals who are leaving the region may become vectors for a super-spreading event in KFLA.
“Some of these individuals have traveled, they left our region, they had family gatherings in higher risk environments, and hence, that’s the biggest threat—is anyone that’s traveled outside, and brought the virus back, and then might have a New Year’s Eve party where, if they didn’t know they were transmitting the virus, it would become another super spreading event,” Dr. Moore said.
While vigilance is still required, Dr. Moore emphasized that the Kingston and area infection rate is significantly lower than Ontario as a whole. “For comparison’s sake, our rate of infection today is 17.8 per one hundred thousand. But for Quebec, it’s 189; so almost 10 times our rate. For Ontario, we’re one-fifth the Ontario rate. Toronto is 146 and Peel’s 176 per one hundred thousand,” Moore said.
This is a reflection of Kingston’s high testing rate and low positivity rate. Along with this news, Dr. Moore announced that there aren’t any hospitalizations and three outbreaks, including one at Fairmount have concluded.
Dr. Moore is reminding those who may have been exposed to the recent exposure at the Rogers Telecom Center at the Cataraqui to continue to monitor their symptoms. “So, anyone that visited from the 17th to the 22nd may have been exposed in that environment, and we suggest you monitor your symptoms and get tested if any symptoms develop,” Dr. Moore said.
