COVID concerns linger in KFL&A as restrictions lift

Jeff Green | Mar 16, 2022

The number of “active high-risk cases” of COVID in Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) remains stubbornly high at 362, in the most recent update to the KFL&A Public Health dashboard, on March 14, with 192 “new high risk cases” being recorded over the preceding weekend alone.

However, Suzette Taggart, Manager of Communications with KFLAPH indicated, in an email to the News, that the phrase “active high risk” refers not only to high risk individuals, such as residents of long term care facilities, but to anyone who is eligible for the PCR testing that is recorded by KFLAPH. Family members of high-risk individuals, anyone working in a long-term care facility, a hospital or any other setting where high risk individuals are located, are also included in that count.

Suzette Taggart said that there is no way to determine what percentage of the KFL&A population is eligible for testing, but that the active case rate is no longer being looked at by KFLAPH as an indication of the risk that COVID poses to the region.

“It's worth noting that the number of active cases should not be taken as an indication of case rate in the community,” said Suzette Taggart. “The indicators we use to assess current COVID-19 activity in the community are the trends in percent positivity, wastewater concentrations, and hospitalisations.”

While the COVID hospitalisation numbers in KFL&A have trended downwards in recent weeks (there were 7 in hospital, 4 of whom were in intensive care and 2 on ventilators as of March 14) the trend in percent positivity has been rising over the last two weeks, and is now 17.1%, one of the highest levels of any jurisdiction in the province.

Wastewater data is not recorded on the KLAPH dashboard. Taggart said that wastewater data is being gathered for the Kingston and Loyalist Township (Odessa and Amherst Island) communities, but not for Greater Napanee. There is also no data for rural Frontenac or Lennox and Addington where there are no water treatment plants. The data that has been gathered “is suggesting a gradual stabilisation in wastewater concentrations, after steady increases.”

Within the healthcare community in KFL&A, there has been some pushback against the provincial decision to lift masking, capacity limits and other COVID restrictions next Monday (March 21).

Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre, who is also a member of the provincial COVID-19 Science advisory table, indicated that in his view the restrictions are being lifted before they should be.

“There has been no opportunity to see what the (lifting) of capacity limits has done, and we’re actually now beginning to see a bit of an upswing in numbers …” he is quoted as saying in an article published in the Whig Standard newspaper late last week.

Closer to home, Dr. Sabra Gibbens of the Verona Medical Clinic told the Frontenac News last week (before the COVID restrictions were lifted) that she was concerned that the true state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, and in KFL&A, is hard to determine. She said that for herself, her family and her patients, masking is still an important defence.

“I don’t want to get COVID, nor do I want my patients to get COVID, even if we are all vaccinated, and boosted. I don’t want to take a chance on getting long COVID and being unable to work for a long period of time. What would that do for my patients,” she said.

After the announcement about COVID restrictions being lifted, Dr. Gibbens posted on the Verona Medical Clinic Facebook page saying that the Verona Clinic will continue to require people to wear well fitting masks when attending in person appointments.

The Limestone District School Board is hosting a special board meeting this week to discuss the “Ministry of Education lifting of Health and Safety Measures in schools,” even though the Ministry of Education has indicated that school boards are not at liberty to impose their own restrictions.

Local townships in Frontenac County and Lennox and Addington are lifting their state of emergency declarations, opening up their offices to the public and planning to hold council meetings in person, some for the first time in almost two years. Township halls are also becoming available for booking at full capacity, without COVID measures, to control entry, at events.

Businesses will make their own determinations about what measures they are planning to take. From conversations with a couple of retailers, indications are that it may be left up to the discretion of both staff members, and the general public, if they choose to continue to wear masks