Prepare for possible lockdown, Waterloo region's top doctor says

Waterloo region's top public health official is warning people to prepare for the "possibility of a lockdown."

"I have a sombre message about the current status of COVID-19: Our health-care system is under very heavy strain," Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's medical officer of health, told regional councillors Wednesday night during a committee meeting.

Wang said there is some good news in that Waterloo region has kept cases below what provincial modelling said could happen if restrictions weren't put in place. The most recent modelling showed the region escalating to 260 cases per day by mid-December.

Even though the region isn't as high as the modelling showed, Wang says local case rates "continue to be high and unstable, potentially tipping at any moment into further growth."

More hospitalizations

Wang saidthe region is seeing more hospitalizations, more people needing to be admitted to the intensive care units, more outbreaks in long term care homes and more deaths.

"This type of strain that we're now experiencing on our health-care system is not sustainable over a long period of time," she said.

She plans to speak withDr. David Williams, the provincial chief medical officer of health before Friday.

"Due to the serious impacts that are now being felt in our health-care system, and the need to not delay if we need to act, we need to be prepared for the possibility of lockdown," Wang said.

Lockdown would last at least 4 weeks

If there is a lockdown, Wang saysthe province would announce it on Friday, and it would come into effect on Monday.

With Christmas and New Years happening in the next two weeks, Wang said it's unclear how exactly the timeline would work, but normally, anytime a region enters a new level above "green," the community stays there for a minimum of four weeks. Those four weeks represent two incubation periods for the virus, the minimum amount of time to give measures to work, she said.

Regions can move up in the framework within that four week period, as Waterloo region did when it moved to Red after just a week in Orangelast month, but they cannot move down.

Helen Jowett, one of the regional councillors for Cambridge, said it may be time for the stricter measures that would come with alockdown.

"We've tried to balance our economy and safety, but I'm in fear that the time for immediate and clear measures has come," she said.

Tired first responders

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said that first responders"quite frankly are tired."

"The best Christmas gift we can give these people, the least selfish Christmas gift we can give these people who have been looking after our community for the past nine months, is to do the right thing and to stay away from others, stay within our households, and not gather with other people, as hard as that's going to be," he said.

Wang says it's important people also realize the strain the nine-month-long pandemic has had on people who work in health care and area hospitals.

"Right now, there is great strain across the system not only because health care workers have to care for so many people, but because they themselves are also falling sick," Wang said. "They are also working extremely gruelling hours because of the need."

She noted there is not an unlimited supply of health-care workers and that they are all working at their capacity.

"You can open more hospital beds, but you only have a limited number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that can do certain procedures or interventions for patients," she said.