January 7, 2021 Vol. 20, No. 01
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Local Covid-19 Numbers Improve In Late December
By Jeff Green ust like the rest of Ontario, Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) are in the dreaded COVID-19 Grey Zone, with only essential businesses remaining open to public traffic and suggested restrictions on social gatherings. However, ever since the provincial lockdown was imposed on December 26, the case rate in KFL&A has been steady or decreasing. As of Monday, January 4th, the 7-day case rate stood at 19.2 per 100,000 residents, and the positive test rate was 0.62%. Under the provincial colour coded system, this would place the KFL&A catchment area in the Yellow Protect Zone. The Yellow Zone is for regions with a case rate of between 10 and 25 cases per 100,000 people, a positive testing rate of 0.5 – 1.2%, a stable community transmission rate, and adequate health care and contact tracing capacity. The most concerning aspect of the report that was posted on the COVID-19 dashboard, on the KFLA Public Health website on Monday, was one new hospitalisation for the virus. There were 3 people in hospital and 2 in Intensive Care in early December, and those cases have fortunately been resolved. The number of active cases, which topped 100 in the runup to Christmas, has settled considerably and now sits at 45. These new numbers reflect much of the impact of Christmas gatherings, as 10 days had elapsed since December 25th, but they do not reflect the impact of New Years gatherings within the region. In Frontenac County, there have been 3 new cases in South Frontenac over the last 7 days, 43 since the outbreak began, and there was a new case confirmed in North Frontenac on December 30th, the second since the pandemic began. There have been no new cases in Central Frontenac since mid-December. There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents of Addington Highlands at all. During a Skype Press briefing on December 21, Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health for KFL&A said that he, along with the other 32 Medical Officers of Health in the province, had been consulted a week or so before the province-wide lockdown was announced, but his advice was not heeded. “It was my suggestion that a regional approach be considered,” he said. “My preference would have been for limitations on travel instead of a province-wide lockdown. The vast majority of the caseload that we have seen in KFL&A has been travel related, coming from the hot spots for COVID-19, like the Toronto and Peel regions. In Southwestern Ontario they are seeing significant caseload increases, all related to travel from the GTA.”
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While he said that enforcing a travel ban would be a “difficult issue”, he added that “I think they could use the OPP. They are able to stop you through the RIDE program to ask if you have been drinking. They could also ask if you are travelling more than 100 kilometres from your home”. During the December 21 Skype call, Dr. Moore also said that he supports the 28-day lock-down in regions such as the GTA, but thinks the province could consider shortening it to 14 days in Eastern Ontario, if the caseload and hospitalisation rates and ICU use remains low. “Within 14 days of Boxing Day we will see if there is an impact from Christmas gatherings in our region on our caseload, and we will have the first indications about the impact of New Year's Eve as well. “I think the Mayors and other politicians from the region are making the case for the province to reconsider the lock-down after 14 days in regions like ours.” Provincial officials did not signal any openness to amending the lockdown schedule at the time. And now KFLAPH is not holding out any hope of an early end to the lockdown either. When asked over email on January 4th about the potential for the lockdown to be shortened in regions other than Northern Ontario, where it was always slated to last 14 days, Jenn Fagan of the KFLAPH Communications Department, wrote: “As COVID-19 cases in Ontario continue to rise, a provincewide shutdown will remain in effect. Public health unit regions, including KFL&A Public Health, in Southern Ontario will remain in shutdown until Saturday, January 23, 2021. This means that at 12:01 am on January 23 the lockdown is lifted (assuming we have no extension).” The possibility of an extension beyond January 23 cannot be discounted, as the provincial numbers for new cases, patients in hospital, ICU and ventilation, have been climbing this week. On the vaccination front, 11 hospital sites are listed on the Province of Ontario vaccination website as locations where vaccination programs are under way, and none of them are in KFL&A. When asked about the roll-out for vaccination locally, Fagan said: “Unfortunately, local information about vaccine rollout is currently confidential. We are working closely with our partners to have processes in place for a smooth roll out; however, this is dependent on the product we receive and when it is delivered to the KFL&A area. We are prepared for several scenarios and are awaiting more information from the province, to see which one will work, to roll out the vaccination strategy in our area. We will keep the public informed as more information arises.” ■
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Smith Ends Stint As Warden
By Jeff Green Francis Smith just completed her third one-year term as Warden of Frontenac County. “The first time I was Warden was the amalgamation year back in the 1990’s, and that was a difficult year. The second time was more of a normal year, but this one was the strangest, by far,” she said, in an interview on January 5th, 2021 from her winter home in BC. (Back of Clarendon) “There were some benefits to this year. I did not have to buy new clothes. I just had to keep the same blouse and jacket at the ready by my computer. I saved a lot of time travelling and a fair bit of expense as well. But spending hour after hour on Zoom calls is not that much fun, when you have to do it day after day, I can tell you that.” Not that she does not see a future for electronic meetings and conferences. As Warden, I attend the AMO [Association of Municipalities of Ontario] conference, and every other time I have attended, the room has been very cold because the meeting takes place in the summer, the chairs were uncomfortable and I ended up doing a whole lot of walking between meetings. I think I was able to pay more attention to the information at the sessions from home than when I went in person. There will be changes out of all this, some of them for the better.” Even though she has saved on travel time, keeping with her role as Mayor and as Warden has meant more work than there are hours in the day, some of the time. “We did not have a roadmap for this. As politicians we are also generalists. Who would have thought we would end up being deep into medical issues, safety protocols, infection control? But that was all part of 2020.”
She said that one of the things that she was not able to do this year because of the isolation was provide support for the staff, both in Frontenac County and Central Frontenac. “So many people have really stepped up this year. Susan Brant took over as Administrator of Fairmount Home just as the pandemic hit. She has done a remarkable job, keeping everyone safe. And I think that with all that has been required from the Frontenac Paramedics this year, having the kind of team leader that Chief Gale Chevalier, someone who always sees the big picture, has been invaluable to everyone working for the service. And in Central Frontenac, Cathy MacMunn has been able to pull everyone together for a common cause. I think that the staff in Central Frontenac are more together now than they were before all this happened.” When her term ran out in Mid-December, Smith passed the chain of office over to South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewall. “I was happy to do it. It has been a long year and he will do well in 2021. The County is in good hands.” she said.
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