The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is holding steady in Haliburton County.
Dr. Bottum says “no news is good news”. There have been no significant updates and no new cases recorded since Monday. But he says now is not the time to be complacent.
Dr. Bottum says we look at Haliburton and say ‘we’ve only had 7 cases in 7 weeks, why can’t we just open up now?’.
But Haliburton, he says, is a hub for tourism and people travelling, so our local citizens are doing great, but as we open up, we’re opening up to tourism. This means people coming back to their cottages and potentially spreading the virus, because they don’t know they’re going get sick.
Dr. Bottum says “we want to have them, but we want them to be well”.
A team of medical students, studying at home, have been combing through the research and have reported that the viral load in a person is at its peak a day before they get sick.
Dr. Bottum says if they keep waiting for people to develop symptoms to swab them, they’re missing people who might have it, but don’t show symptoms for a day or two. He says we’re always one step behind this pesky virus, like so many cold and flu viruses.
Dr. B says it is key to do contact tracing, to isolate people that have come in contact with a confirmed patient, even before they have symptoms.