Brant County Public Health Message to Residents

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Wednesday, 21 April 2021 16:33

The Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Brant County Health Unit has put out a message to the public amid soaring COVID-19 cases in Brant.

BRANT COUNTY - The Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Brant County Health Unit has put out a message to the public amid soaring COVID-19 cases in Brant.

You can read the message from Dr. Dr. Elizabeth Urbantke

I’d like to start by acknowledging the community member we lost recently to COVID-19. I’d like to pass my sincerest condolences on to this individual’s loved ones.

Last week, we saw our local case count, once again, rise to an unprecedented level. The 271 COVID-19 cases in Brant were by far the most we’ve seen in a week. We are now at a point where variant of concern cases constitute over 50 per cent of our weekly case count. Last week, 164 cases screened positive for a variant of concern.

What we are seeing is the result of the activity that has taken place over the last two weeks coming to fruition. I am still hopeful that the current measures put in place by the Province will assist in bringing case counts down. With typical incubation periods, I am optimistic that we will begin to see our local indicators level off this week and next. This would be similar to what was seen after the initiation of measures for the second wave.

Once again, for this to begin to happen we need buy-in from our community or we will just continue to prolong a time that has been difficult for everyone.

We are aware that some health units have chosen to issue Class Section 22 orders to close workplaces with outbreaks made up of five employees or more. At this point, we do not have plans to issue a similar order here in Brant. As I’ve always stated, we need to take local context into consideration before looking compare the actions of different health units. The health units who have chosen to enact this measure often see outbreaks happening in large workplaces where it can be very difficult to contact trace just based on the sheer number of individuals that could either be cases or close contacts of cases.

In Brant, we don’t have near the number of large workplaces as some other jurisdictions, which makes contact tracing easier. We also often see our local businesses voluntarily close if too many staff would be considered a high-risk close contact.

I’d also like to update our vaccination efforts. This week, we are offering vaccine to the remaining Phase One and Primary Priority Phase Two groups. We also have begun to enter into select Secondary Priority Phase Two populations. Those being vaccinated this week include:

- Seniors aged 60 years and older
- Homebound care recipients
- On and off reserve Indigenous adults
- Highest and high risk conditions under the Province’s Primary Priority for Phase Two
- Education staff who provide direct supports to students with complex special needs
- Employees and students completing placements who are child-facing in licensed childcare centres, licensed home childcare and authorized recreation and skill building programs.

Those qualifying under the “High” and “Highest Risk” health conditions in Phase Two are still encouraged to obtain booking information through their primary care health provider. We have not yet reached the “At-Risk” health condition groups.

For more information please visit the Brant County Health Unit website at www.bchu.org and also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.