Is KFL&A Planking? Dr. Moore won’t rule it out

Jeff Green | Apr 08, 2020

(Editors note - This article has been updated from the version published in the Frontenac News on April 9 with information from KFL&A Public Health that was released on April 8 - it is currently up to date as of 11am, April 9)

In an interview with the Frontenac News on Friday (April 3), and again on CBC Ottawa on Monday (April 6), Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, said that over the last few days, he has been feeling that the community spread of COVID-19 in this jurisdiction, appears to have been flattening out.

“As of Tuesday, (March 31) there were 43 cases in KFL&A, a number that had been increasing significantly over the previous week. At that time, the local region had an infection rate that was over 50% above the Ontario average.

A few days later, the picture had changed,

We are not accelerating,” Dr. Moore told the News on Friday, April 3, at which time there were 48 confirmed cases among the 200,000 residents in KFL&A.

And since he made those comments, cases have spiked in the province but the increase in KFL&A has, if anything, slowed. 

By Wednesday of this week (April 8), there were 53 confirmed cases in this region according to KFL&A Public Health website, 30% below the provincial average on a per capita basis. And the testing rate in KFL&A is 18% higher than the provincial average. Province wide, about 6.4% of tests have come back positive, but in KFL&A only 3.8% have come back positive. (Note - the above paragraph refers to Ontario reporting as of 10:30 am, April 9 and KFL&A reporting as of 5:30pm, April 8) 

Moore said that he knows there are cases, perhaps a large number, that are never confirmed because the patients are never tested. But he said that the low rate of admissions to hospital “is an indicator that we have a pretty good handle on community transmission in KFL&A.”

He said that the capacity that has been developed in the hospitals in KFL&A, coupled with the light local case-load, might mean that, in the coming weeks, patients from other regions will be transferred to Kingston to offload some of the burden in those communities.

KFL&A Public Health is committed to revealing the location of any COVID case in a major institution such as a health care centre, hospital, or long-term care facility, Moore said.

“We provide the institution with an opportunity to make the announcement themselves, but if they do not do so within a day or two, we will make the announcement. It is important to be transparent.

And KFL&A Public Health has now changed their reporting practice to include some geographic data in the newly created online reporting dashboard on their  website. This is something that the Frontenac News has been requesting for the last two weeks.

Of the 53 confirmed cases in the region, 9 are located in Frontenac County, 11 in Lennox and Addington (which includes the City of Napanee) and 33 in  the City of Kingston.

The News had requested a breakdown by township, which has not been forthcoming, but the breakdown by County gives some indication of the infection rate in local communities.

For example, with 9 cases for a population of about 27,000 people, Frontenac County has a confirmed infection rate that is 15% below the provincial average, while the City of Kingston has a rate that is 32% below the average. It should be notem however, that the relatively small population in Frontenac County makes a comparison with the provincial numbers dubious. It would only take 2 more cases in FC to put the county above the provincial average.

As the state of emergency in KFL&A enters its third week, and the province of Ontario has increased its lock-down measures, Public Health has been receiving over 100 reports each day about breaches of the distancing rules that are in place.

According to Jenn Fagan, of the Communications Department, the reports concern alleged breaches by members of the public in public spaces, such as sidewalks and trails, and about alleged breaches by commercial operators.

Dr. Moore said that Public Health has not been policing stores.

“If a store phone us for advice, or education on best practices, we provide it, but we have not been policing their activities. We continue to do regular health inspections, but as far as COVID-19 distancing, we see this as a community effort. It is in everybody’s interest that essential services be maintained.

“The better job that we do to flatten the curve, the better the outcome will be for all of us. We all need to keep with what we have been doing,” he said.

Paradoxically, however, he said that the better job we do at spreading out the rate of infection, the longer it will take for the virus to run its course in our region.

“If we did nothing, and cases spiked, it would be quicker but more deadly, like it is in New York. We are trying to avoid that,” he said.

(See the Op-ed by Dr. Moore regarding distancing over Easter weekend)