Chatham-Kent’s medical officer says no one likes restrictions on family gatherings for Thanksgiving, but we have to do what’s best for everyone.
Late last week, the provincial government urged Ontarians to stick to their own household rather than gathering with extended family and friends for the time being to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. David Colby says it’s hard, given the low number of active cases in Chatham-Kent and confusing messaging.
“In particular, what we are worried about are people travelling from high prevelance jurisdictions, not knowing that they are infected,” Colby says. “People often have this kind of double-think mentality, and we’ve seen this many times, ‘I’m sure it’s just a cold’ so they come sick to a family gathering, suddenly there are a lot of secondary cases and problems.”
Colby says everyone hates the idea of not being able to see extended family this time of year, but it’s important to do whatever we can to help reduce the spread of the virus.
“Close, and especially family contact is the way that people are getting this,” Colby says. “We’re asking students not to come home, we’re asking people to stick to their households, meet virtually. Nobody likes this. We don’t like it, but we can’t allow this to spread willy nilly and overload our acute care settings.”