'Niagara could quickly whiplash back into a lockdown if the region opens up too soon - and the goal is a sustained reopening of the economy that will not have to be closed down again.'
That is the message from the region's acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji on the first day of Niagara's new level of restrictions in the COVID-19 framework.
Speaking to the region's committee for public health and social services on Tuesday, Hirji said the region's cases were some of the province's highest in January, and while things are looking up, Niagara still sits above some other regions in how the infection is spreading in the community since it is coming down from a higher level of cases.
Although, said Hirji, a trend in the last week saw Niagara fall below some other regions, calling it 'good news.'
"Yesterday was the first day that we came to an average daily case count that was noted in the peak of the first wave, so there are still relatively high cases here," he told the committee.
Having received criticism, and even threats for his stance on the region's Grey/'Lockdown'-level in the province's rainbow framework, Hirji reiterated that the goal for Niagara is a sustainable reopening, that does not need to be reverted in case of local outbreaks, that the provincial science table predict could drive cases up again quickly.
"We saw in terribly vivid detail how over 250 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the last six or seven weeks. That is a real cost of what we see when COVID-19 spreads quickly," Hirji said.
He pointed towards the mutated strains of the COVID-19 virus, which appear to be more infectious, as a threat to the progress the region has made in driving the numbers down.
Of the little over 300 cases found in Ontario of the seemingly more infectious so-called 'variants of concern', none have been identified in Niagara yet.
"But that is something that likely won't persist," Hirji told the committee.
Hirji said heavy travel from Hamilton and the GTA, where cases have been identified, over the long weekend likely 'won't serve the region well' in its efforts to keep the mutated strains of the COVID-19 virus out of Niagara, and that another lockdown would continue to cause damage to the already severed local economy.
"We are watching this very closely, and hope we can intercept it."
Speaking on the local vaccinations against the virus, Hirji said vaccine supplies are beginning to increase again, enabling Public Health to resume vaccinating high-risk healthcare workers.
