"Our COVID-19 peak may be ending in some areas": NWHU

The Northwestern Health Unit is finally seeing the gradual decrease in some COVID-19 statistics and trends the rest of the province has seen for weeks now.

“What we’re seeing is that the case numbers are declining slowly,” said Dr. Kit Young Hoon, Medical Officer of Health for the NWHU. “We’ve been seeing it for roughly three weeks. There is a somewhat consistent trend of decreasing case numbers.”

The health unit is reporting a total of 205 active cases, 156 of those cases are in the Sioux Lookout Health Region.

“Sioux Lookout Health Hub is large geography, and it includes two huge municipalities, which would be the Municipality of Sioux Lookout and Pickle Lake. At this point, the majority of cases are in a number of First Nation communities.”

Another key health indicator that has seen a decrease is hospitalizations in the region.

“There was a bit of an increase in mid-February, and now there seems to be a bit of a decrease in hospitalization numbers.

“However hospitalization numbers are very small in numbers so we’re talking about one or two a day on average. It’s very hard to really be certain of a trend when you’re looking at such small numbers.”

The NWHU website shows that from February 28 to March 6, 2022, only one person was hospitalized due to COVID-19 in the region.

Hospitalizations in the province continue to decline as only 779 were reported on Tuesday (March 8, 2022), which is down from the 914 reported last week.

Though cases are the decline, Young Hoon is still very worried about the region's test positivity rate of 24.3 per cent, which is way above the province's 10.9 per cent.

“Our overall rates are still very high compared to the rest of province, however, our peak may be ending on some areas.”

The slow decline of COVID-19 statistics is even after the province entered into the next phase of their reopening plan a week ago that saw proof of vaccination and capacity limits removed.

To make sure the trends keep going down Young Hoon said the health will continue to monitor the trends over the next couple of weeks.

In a way to try and reduce the risk of the virus in the region, Young Hoon is recommending the following:

• Keep social gatherings limited to a maximum of 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors; 

• All indoor public settings are limited to the number of people who are able to maintain a physical distance of at least two metres from every other person to a maximum capacity of 50%; 

• Be vigilant in continuing to practice all prevention measures, including physical distancing, daily screening, staying home when feeling unwell, and wearing a mask properly when in indoor public settings and when physical distancing is challenging; and 

• Getting a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as it significantly reduces the chance of infection from the Omicron variant.