WINGHAM, ONT. -- A person with the COVID-19 variant is recovering in Grey-Bruce, although they didn’t contract the variant case in the counties.
“The case we reported is related to a person who has a secondary residence in Grey-Bruce. They decided to isolate there for a period of 10 days, that they need to recover through. We follow up with the person everyday,” says the medical officer of health with the Grey-Bruce Health Unit, Dr. Ian Arra.
The variant case not originating, but isolating in Grey-Bruce, has raised the ire of some locals, citing recommendations for people to stay home as much as possible.
But, the “outside” variant case, temporarily coming to the countryside, is of little concern to Arra.
“It’s happened multiple times during the pandemic, where people might want to be isolating away from their family, and this is the only house or property they have to be separate. Our residents have done that too, isolating in a cottage or home they have somewhere else, or in a different property,” he says.
In nearby Huron-Perth, where no variant cases have shown up yet, they’re are preparing for its inevitable arrival.
“A virus that causes the same amount of illness and is susceptible to the vaccine, but can transmit 1.5 times more easily, is a big concern,” says Dr. Miriam Klassen, medical officer of health for the Huron Perth Health Unit.
“It is probably inevitable that we see cases of the variant here,” says Arra. “It’s a wake-up call in a way, that if this person didn’t do the right thing and get tested when they did, they could have been walking around Grey-Bruce. The risk isn’t really there for anybody, unless we lower our guard,” he says.
Federal modelling suggests current health and safety measures are not enough to control the inevitable spread of the new COVID-19 variants.
