Medical Officer of Health answers listener questions about COVID-19

With all the talk and concern over COVID-19 plenty of people have questions.

To that end Medical Officer of Health Dr Jim Chirico joined 101.9 Rock for an exclusive interview, to answer some questions from our listeners.

He says physical distancing will help slow the spread of the virus.

“Physical distance is a practice of standing a minimum of two metres or six feet from someone. For your safety and those around you, assume that everyone has the virus and only go out into public when you absolutely need too, and ensure you keep at least two metres apart from others,” he says.

Dr. Chirico says those are very important practices with cases of ‘community transmission’ here.

“They haven’t travelled, they weren’t in contact with anybody that they knew had COVID-19 and that’s why we can’t stop this, but we can slow the spread,” He says.

He says people may have no symptoms or mild symptoms so they don’t get tested and that’s why people should assume everyone has it and practice physical distancing and handwashing.

“It’s believed that the evidence is indicating, that individuals can have COVID-19 and infect others two days before showing any symptoms. When someone tests positive, the Health Unit does close contact tracing,” Dr. Chirico says.

He was also asked if a positive case can reacquire the virus after recovering.

“We really don’t know yet if a person that gets COVID-19 can get it more than once, but really to protect yourself and others, we certainly recommend that people who recover from COVID-19 continue to practice physical distancing and prevention practices such as handwashing, so at this point more studies are needed to really get the answer to that question,” he says.

Another topic included the global effort to find a vaccine and timelines, which are estimated at one to two years.

Negative testing numbers were also discussed, which are no longer available to the Health Unit.

Positive numbers will continue to be reported.

As of 3 pm on Thursday there have been 14 cases of COVID-19 in the area covered by the health unit.

Four patients are in hospital, four are in self-isolation and six cases have been resolved.
11 are in Nipissing and three in Parry Sound.

(EOCG)

The City of North Bay’s Emergency Operations Control Group held a teleconference on Thursday.

North Bay Mayor Al McDonald says they talked about efforts to provide shelter and support for those who are homeless at Pete Palangio Arena.

That was taking place at the North Bay YMCA.

Updates were also provided by the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit and the North Bay Regional Health Centre on the community response to COVID-19.

Also taking part were the City of North Bay, the North Bay Police Service, North Bay Fire and Emergency Services,, District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board, Community Living North Bay and North Bay Emergency Medical Services.

(File photo by station staff)