North Hastings going to experience more cases in the next few days, and residents should take steps to protect others this holiday season.
Dr. Carolyn Brown from Bancroft Family Health Team says because Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is swamped with cases, the COVID numbers on their website do not paint an accurate picture of the situation. As Dr. Brown is leading the Bancroft COVID-19 assessment centre, she says that there are closer to 50 active cases of the virus in the area.
Dr. Brown says the centre is currently going through 130 tests a day, with some contacts coming from out of town. On the Health Unit side, she says the situation has gotten to the point where active cases are asked to do their own contact tracing, as they do not have the resources to do so anymore.
Dr. Brown says while it is hard to get a rapid COVID-19 test, residents should try to get one before attending family events. People need to be careful about getting into large groups without masks. In particular, Dr. Brown is urging people to be careful to make sure they don’t give the virus to unvaccinated people, as they have a higher chance of winding up in hospital.
In addition, Dr. Brown is urging people to respect each other. She says incidents of swearing and not being nice are unproductive, and won’t help anything. She asks people to be patient as the testing facilities in North Hastings continue to navigate through the surge in cases.