Algoma Public Health has changed its COVID-19 reporting methods to include a more detailed breakdown of positive cases across the Algoma District.
Those changes - which now reveal positive cases by sub-region - show that there are currently eight positive cases in Sault Ste. Marie and area, a sub-region which also includes Batchewana First Nation, Garden River First Nation, as well as the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional.
“We always had a plan in place to provide as much information as we can while respecting our obligations to respect privacy laws. As the number of cases increased - now that we have over 10 cases, and the numbers are a bit spread out according to the sub-regions - we were able to post that on our website,” said Dr. Jennifer Loo, associate medical officer of health and director of health protection for Algoma Public Health. “You‘ll notice the low numbers are still suppressed - this is very common practice at Statistics Canada and other statistics agencies when reporting low numbers.”
“So again, we always want to report as much information as we can, as soon as we’re able to do that.”
Dr. Loo says that Algoma Public Health could pattern its future COVID-19 reporting after the more detailed epidemiological summaries released daily by Public Health Ontario should the number of positive cases increase.
“We’re trying to look at the information that’s being reported, particularly in that overall outbreak curve type of format, or what’s known as an epidemiological curve, or epi-curve,” she said.
Although the former approach to COVID-19 reporting rankled some members of the public, not to mention the mayor and members of city council in Elliot Lake, Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Christian Provenzano eventually came to understand and respect the health unit’s position.
“When we had the first positive, my first question to Algoma Public Health was ‘is it in Sault Ste. Marie?’ And they wouldn’t give me that information,” he told SooToday Friday. “So, I can tell you my initial reaction to that was I thought it was strange. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give me that information, but they explained it to me and I accepted what they were saying as responsible.”
“So right from the outset of this, I trusted that Algoma Public Health would release information as appropriate when it could.”
Provenzano goes on to paraphrase the reasoning behind the initial bare-bones approach to the health unit’s COVID-19 reporting method:
“There’s a problem in small numbers because when the numbers are small, it’s difficult to give certain information without actually identifying potentially who the person is,” said Provenzano. “So if that first case wasn’t in Sault Ste. Marie, and if it was in a smaller community, if they identified the community on top of all the other information they provided, it could have been that they identified the person in that community inadvertently.”
Earlier this month, Elliot Lake Mayor Dan Marchisella used a public information session to accuse Algoma Public Health of vagueness and inconsistency when it comes to providing specific community identification information for reported COVID-19 cases.
“I think there will always be disagreements, and certainly sometimes anxiety, fear and tempers can run high. I think the important thing is that regardless, we do continue to work very closely with Elliot Lake as well as all of our municipalities,” said Dr. Loo, when asked about the criticism. “There are meetings and teleconferences and emails all the time, and again, our objective is actually the same: We all want to protect our communities.”
“There may be disagreements over what strategies should be done at what time, but I think it’s important to remember that we truly are in this together, and our ultimate goal is exactly the same - we want to protect the people of Algoma.”
Although the more detailed COVID-19 reporting from Algoma Public Health now breaks down positive cases by sub-region, Dr. Loo says that now is not the time to begin relaxing current public health measures, which includes staying home as much as possible, physical distancing in the community and hand washing for a full 20 seconds.
Those are the measures, she says, that will ultimately help break the train of transmission.
“When we post a breakdown of cases by area of residence, we were very clear to say that even though in some areas there’s not a confirmed case of community spread, that does not mean that it’s not happening there,” said Dr. Loo. “Every time we have someone test positive, they could have been sick for a week before they got the test, and they could have been exposed the two weeks before that.”
“So testing only gives us a picture of the people who are exposed and infected in the past - we need to take action based on what is happening right now, and single community in Algoma and every single person in Algoma has to be behaving as if there’s community spread happening right now in our communities."
The 11th and 12th positive cases were reported by Algoma Public Health over the past two days, with the 11th case providing evidence of community transmission.
Here are Friday's COVID-19 numbers from Algoma Public Health:
- 1,120 tested
- 12 positive
- 897 negative
- 211 pending
- 0 deceased
- 6 resolved
Positive cases of COVID-19, broken down by region:
- 8 in Sault Ste. Marie and area
- less than 5 in central and east Algoma
- less than 5 in Elliot Lake and area
- 0 in north Algoma
Here are the COVID-19 reporting regions for the Algoma District, as defined by Algoma Public Health:
Central and east Algoma includes: Blind River, Bruce Mines, Hilton, Hilton Beach, Huron Shores, Jocelyn, Johnson, Mississauga First Nation, Plummer Additional, St. Joseph, Tarbutt and Tarbutt Additional, The North Shore, Thessalon, Thessalon First Nation
Elliot Lake and area includes: Elliot Lake, Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, Serpent River First Nation, Spanish
North Algoma includes: Dubreuilville, Michipicoten First Nation, Missinabie Cree First Nation, Wawa, White River
Sault Ste. Marie and area includes: Batchewana First Nation, Garden River First Nation, Laird, Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional, Prince, Sault Ste. Marie