Apart from health concerns Sault and Algoma residents, like people across the world, are experiencing from the COVID-19 emergency, many are asking how long fears of catching the virus and COVID-19 related inconveniences such as long lineups and shortages of some items at grocery stores, cancellations of events and numerous closures of public places will last.
“A lot of people are wondering how long this is going to last, and what I can say is this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. We’re looking at weeks, it might take months,” said Dr. Jennifer Loo, Algoma Public Health (APH) associate medical officer of health and director of health protection, speaking to SooToday.
Loo’s comment came after a joint APH-City of Sault Ste. Marie update for media was held at the APH office on Willow Avenue Wednesday.
APH and Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano told the media to self isolate for 14 days if you are over 70, immune-compromised or have travelled outside Canada in the last 14 days.
This came after an Algoma resident, a female in her 50s, developed symptoms of COVID-19 after landing on a flight at Chippewa International Airport March 15, becoming the Sault and Algoma region’s first confirmed case of COVID-19.
The woman stayed at home and contacted APH March 16. Paramedics transported the woman to SAH and she is now continuing to recover at home.
Wednesday’s media conference, however, was called prior to APH being made aware of the single, confirmed case of COVID-19 reported in the Algoma region Tuesday evening.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians to brace for a long haul Tuesday, stating business closures and people staying home to prevent spreading the COVID-19 virus could last weeks or months.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday it could be July or August at the earliest before the U.S. gets the coronavirus outbreak under control.
The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the COVID-19 virus a pandemic March 11.
“At Algoma Public Health, like all the other employers, if we have had employees that are returning from abroad we will ask for self isolation and we’re allowing them to work at home if they can, however emergency management and recovery and response is a core function of public health and we are an essential service, and so we are not sending people home who are essential. We are allowing them to self monitor if they are concerned about contacts,” said Dr. Marlene Spruyt, APH medical officer of health and CEO after Wednesday’s media conference.
“Essentially we need as many hands on deck as we can. We need them all. Nobody’s being told to stay home. People who travelled are staying home and some of them are being allowed to stay at home if their work is conducive to that. But much of our work is here and interacting with others, meeting and planning, and so we’re pretty much running full service,” Spruyt said.
“We’ve done an assessment on our essential services and the level of staffing we need to maintain those,” said Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano.
“We’ve also done an assessment of our non-essential services...our staff is being affected like everybody else’s staff are. If we have staff that have symptoms, they’re being told to stay home. If we have staff that are high risk, they won’t be exposed to the general public.”
Provenzano said the city’s CAO and general staff will be finalizing decisions regarding measures concerning essential and non-essential services and staff Wednesday.
“Not to my knowledge,” Provenzano said when asked if any City employees have reported feeling unwell and told to stay home.
