The Ontario Hospital Association is calling for an immediate lockdown in any health unit region that has more than 40 cases per 100,000 population.
Officials with the OHA say hospitals across the province are quickly becoming overwhelmed and something needs to give.
However, Chatham-Kent’s Chief Medical Officer believes such a move would be premature.
“There’s never one variable that should be your sole criterion for making such a decision,” Dr. Colby says. “The number of outbreaks, the source of the outbreaks, the number of unlinked cases…as well as the overall proportional number and how that is distributed through your jurisdiction, these are all factors that need to be taken into account.”
Dr. Colby says provincial decisions like mandating a lockdown are made with the input of local health officials.
“I’m going to monitor the situation,” Dr. Colby says. “I don’t think using a simplistic, formulaic approach is appropriate for these kinds of decisions. ”
Chatham-Kent currently has 33 active cases of COVID-19 with two patients being treated at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, one CK resident that is included in the numbers from Public Health, and one non-resident.