Chatham-Kent medical officer of health insists that Chatham-Kent Public Health is not hiding cases or information, even though it's again changing the way it reports COVID-19 information.
Reporting by the local health unit is being reduced to three times weekly. Statistics will be released on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday instead of daily reporting in response to recent provincial changes in COVID-19 testing eligibility, and case and contact management practices.
Dr. David Colby said reporting the number of new and active cases no longer represents an accurate picture of what's going on in the community. He added the recent surge of Omicron has made it very challenging for public health units to test and track contacts, unless it's in high risk settings like long-term care facilities and hospitals.
"We do not have confidence that our numbers are capturing even a specific fraction of what's going on in the community. You can't hinge on numbers that are unreliable," said Colby. "We're not trying to keep this under wraps by any means."
Colby said it's not a question of winning or losing when it comes to COVID-19, it's about dealing with and managing the changing virus as best as one can.
"Omicron is so contagious there is no prospect of community control, you can only control outcomes," Colby said. "We have won for the time being. Everything could change with the emergence of a different variant. With viruses you don't win or lose, you just cope with them the best you can."
Dr. Colby said public health has to adapt and do things differently when they're dealing with an ever-changing virus.
Chatham-Kent Public Health said the the focus will shift to reporting trends over time beginning on Monday, instead of daily numbers, to better assess the current situation locally.
Trends will be reported once a week on Wednesday and the reporting of case details, including age, sex, and geography will be discontinued. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths will continue to be reported, as will the number of weekly cases, new cases since last report, and the average number of cases per day over the last seven days.
New outbreaks reported will continue to be limited to those in congregate living settings and hospitals. COVID-19 testing and vaccination data will be updated once weekly on Wednesdays.
Local public health officials said more indicators to support assessment of the current situation will be added as more accurate surveillance information becomes available.
On Thursday, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) reported the hospital situation is improving in terms of COVID-19 patients. CKHA CEO Lori Marshall said there are 16 positive patients in the hospital, nine of whom are being treated primarily for the virus. She also said two of them are in the ICU.
Staff infections are also getting better. Marshall said 45 staff members are either off work with COVID-19 or waiting for test results and 41 are working to meet staffing demands, but are isolating at home immediately after their shifts. Those work-isolating are not necessarily contagious and are work-isolating as a precaution.
The public health unit reported no new deaths, no new outbreaks, and the weekly average case count continues to drop. It's at 43 on Thursday after being in the 100s last month.
Colby also said there are some people getting their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and the older age groups are doing a fantastic job at getting their third boosters.
