Elliot Lake's Dr. Cathy Groh turned to social media this weekend where she highlighted the escalating cases of COVID-19 in Simcoe County, at one Long Term Care facility in Barrie.
Dr. Groh is a member of the Elliot Lake Family Health Team. She has been keeping the community updated on all things related to.pandemic in the City, through social media postings, other published advice, and by taking part in Elliot Lake-sponsored live streamed TV broadcasts.
As of Saturday morning, 32 people had died at Roberta Place in Barrie of what has been tentatively identified as the B.1.1.7 variant of the COVID-19 virus. That's the variant which first turned up in Britain.
Muskoka-Simcoe's top Doc, Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Charles Gardner, says all the cases at Roberta Place appear related to the variant. It is believed to have originated after one person was exposed to someone who travelled internationally.
The latest count of those infected at Roberta Place include 125 of 127 residents, and 87 members of staff who have tested positive. At least 32 deaths have resulted. Roberta Place reported 40 new cases in one weekend.
On Friday, Dr. Groh went to social media offering her take on the tragic situation in Barrie.
"Whether it is a COVID-19 variant or not, this disease continues to have a terrible impact on long-term care homes, she wrote. "This is despite all the changes put in place to protect residents, such as screening staff and visitors, regular testing of staff and visitors, and use of PPE."
"That's why preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the community is so important. We all have a responsibility to protect the people living in long-term care.
"We can hope vaccination of this group of people will take place in the next few weeks, but until they are fully vaccinated, the main line of defense against the virus is the people of Elliot Lake.
As to the availability of vaccine, Dr. Groh wrote, "Ontario had enough vaccine to vaccinate every person in longterm care. A decision was made to vaccinate healthcare workers in hard hit areas before distributing the vaccine to people in longterm care in less affected areas."
"The Ministry says they did this because the thought was that the Pfizer vaccine could not be moved from the point of delivery," Dr. Groh continued.
As for the future, she continued, "Preliminary data shows that the variants identified so far don't yet seem to be an issue for current coronavirus vaccines."
"There is concern that as the virus continues to spread it will mutate into variants that will be capable of evading current vaccines. This is an additional incentive to ensure that the entire world has access to vaccines," concluded Dr. Groh.