By Kaitlyn Clark
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—Medical Officer of Health for Haldimand and Norfolk Dr. Shanker Nesathurai is urging residents “to maintain vigilance, to continue with social distancing, to continue to stay at home unless there’s a compelling reason to leave, and to continue making sure older people are at home and self-isolating”.
Nesathurai provided data on the trends of COVID-19 in Haldimand and Norfolk, including on the location of positive cases. He stated, “With this few numbers, one can’t conclude anything other than there are cases in Haldimand and there are cases in Norfolk County. Recognizing that the number of people who test positive are only a fraction of the people … I would not think that this data should any way suggest that we should back away from our very assertive approach in Haldimand and Norfolk counties.”
As of press time, approximately 166 residents had tested positive, of which 32 had officially recovered and 28 had died. Of these deaths, 24 were Anson Place residents.
The majority of cases in the health district are in Haldimand, but this number is skewed as the Anson Place cases are recorded as Hagersville statistics. As of April 17, approximately 60% of all positive cases in the region were related to residents or staff at Anson Place. He noted that while “there is preliminary evidence of epidemiological link to the cases at Anson Place and a funeral and related visitation in the community, this should not be interpreted that individuals who attended the funeral were the ‘cause’ of the outbreak at Anson Place or vice versa.”
*As of April 17
Nesathurai also noted that the cases are recorded by their residential address, but many people may reside in one location and work or have reason to travel regularly to other locations. This situation has been seen in Haldimand, as the County announced previously that one of its emergency services employees tested positive, but this is not tracked among Haldimand’s statistics for positive cases as the employee resides in another region. By only recording positive cases based on their town of residence, statistics on the total number of cases is easier to obtain as there are no duplicates from region to region.
Of the positive cases, approximately 71% are female and 28% are male; however, this does not inherently suggest gender increases likelihood of infection.
“This is not unexpected, as women are disproportionately represented in the elderly,” said Nesathurai. “As well, the data includes testing of healthcare workers, who are more likely to be women.”
A disproportionate number of those testing positive are seniors, which are expected to be significantly more vulnerable to the virus. Almost 60% of cases in the region are in those 60+, and only about 17% are under the age of 40. Nesathurai stated that “the deaths primarily affected men and women in the seventh, eighth, and ninth decades of life”, which is consistent with statistics elsewhere.
Age Distribution (All Cases) Haldimand and Norfolk
90+ – 19.3%
80-89 – 20.5%
70-79 – 7.2%
60-69 – 10.2%
50-59 – 13.3%
40-49 – 12%
30-39 – 7.8%
20-29 – 7.8%
19 and under – 1.8%
*As of April 20, 2020
“Regrettably, I anticipate other deaths still,” said Nesathurai.
However, there is some cause to believe the measures being put in place are having an effect. On Anson Place specifically, Nesathurai discussed the various measures that are now in place to avoid further transmission, such as residents self-isolating in their rooms even for meals and staff self-isolation even away from their families: “The people infected (at Anson Place) we believe, to the best of our ability, were infected before these measures were instituted.”
Nesathurai said he believes the “vast majority of people” understand the reason for the measures put in place across the health district and are following the orders and guidelines, although he admitted that “regrettably, we also have to remind people sometimes.” Nesathurai said he is “worried” that as the weather gets nicer people will be more inclined to gather and not adhere to public health management plan, and urged residents to remember, “All these inconveniences we’ve placed on residents is to try to break the chain of transmission.”
Nesathurai was questioned on his decision to close the public trail systems in Haldimand and Norfolk, as some neighbouring municipalities have left them open: “The key reasons we closed trails in Haldimand and Norfolk counties is we want to do everything we can to effectuate social distancing. I recognize on occasion there is differences betweeen us and neighbouring municipalities, but the most important thing is we want to keep people safe and break the chain of transmission.”
He added that it is still “hard to know” if the region is flattening the curve, but that we still need to “do our best to try to contain COVID-19”.
A third testing site for the region opened this week in Dunn-ville. A release from Haldimand War Memorial Hospital (HWMH) stated that it will be operated by staff from the hospital and the Haldimand Family Health Team for three days a week with the capacity to perform 16 tests per day. Two testing sites have already been operational, one in Hagersville and one in Delhi. Testing at all three sites is by appointment only. Tests can also be ordered by emergency room and family physicians as well, and some tests have been done this way in the region to date.
While HWMH had previously announced up to five residents of Edgewater Gardens Long-term Care were being tested for COVID-19, all five residents’ tests came back negative.
Updates
April 22, 2020 – Anson Place
Anson Place reported one more resident death on April 21 after press time, but were still waiting for confirmation from public health on whether or not this death is attributed to COVID-19. If so, it would bring the home’s total deaths to 25.
