As provincial officials keep tabs on a spike in cases of a new COVID subvariant in China, Europe, and parts of the UK, Chatham-Kent’s top doctor is expressing his own concerns.
In his monthly update to the Chatham-Kent Board of Health, Dr. David Colby says the Omicron subvariant BA.2, nicknamed the Stealth Variant, is the most transmissible form of COVID-19 yet.
” It is certainly in Ontario and I have every reason to believe that it’s going to completely supplant the previous Omicron variant before too long, and may be responsible for the leveling off and perhaps increase we’re going to see in our numbers,” Dr. Colby says. “It worries me.”
Colby says right now in Chatham-Kent, institutional settings are seeing the highest rate of spread with recent outbreaks in group homes and retirement residences.
“We are not done with this yet, despite the fact that everybody is tired of it and wants it to be done, indoor gatherings, especially where there is no physical distancing, is exactly the kind of scenario where we can see explosive spread.”
Colby says it’s hard to predict a specific risk in any given situation, especially with masking requirements being dropped.
“Masking is not the most important control measure, the gathering limits and physical distancing are both more important than masking when it comes to COVID control.”
He says masking is source control, preventing spread from the wearer to others.
“When everyone is masked, there’s a significant amount of protection. When people just put on a mask to protect themselves and the majority of people are not masked, well, we’ll have to see. I think it’s quite clear that will have much lesser value.”
Colby stresses full vaccination, including booster shots, remains the best defense against infection.
