'Nail-break' subsides a bit, 5 new cases on Friday, and tourism industry asks people to “be kind”.

Jeff Green | Jul 08, 2020

(Note - there were new cases reported over the weekend (July 4-5) including the 13th and 14th Frontenac County cases, the first since early May)

(Note - on Friday 5 new cases were confirmed, all contacts from existing cases. "This was expected, said Dr. Moore) 

Dr. Kieran Moore, the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A), announced three new confirmed COVID-19 cases at a Skype press conference on Thursday, July 2.

One of the cases is a current staff member at Georgia’s nail salon in Amherstview, who has seen customers. For that reason, any customer of Georgia’s between June 12 and 25 is being told to self isolate for 14 days whether they have tested positive for the infection or not. The reason for this is that this latest individual treated patients at Georgia’s until June 25.

Previously, another staff member at Georgia’s who was in close contact with a Binh’s nail salon staff, tested positive. Public Health considers it likely that this new individual, who has no direct connection to Binh’s, likely contracted the virus from the Binh’s employee.

Given the pace of cases in recent days, Dr. Moore said “this outbreak peaked, in our opinion, on June 25. We are not seeing it propagating. That being said, everyone should still remain vigilant, follow the rules on masking, monitor symptoms and get tested if necessary.”

Of particular concern is the fact that of the 33 cases associated with the nail salon, one patient is now in the Intensive Care Unit in hospital, receiving oxygen. The patient, who is a family member of a Binh’s Nail Salon employee, “is not being intivated” said Doctor Moore, who also expressed “our best wishes to the family” of that individual.

(Editors note – on Friday, the patient was described as stable)

Of the other new cases, one has recently returned from Europe, and has tested positive while in their mandatory 14-day quarantine period, and thus poses little risk to the public.

The third case is an individual who had visitors from the Greater Toronto area over the last two weeks.

Although the exact source of the Binh’s outbreak has not been determined, Public Health is confident that it stemmed from an employee and did not come from any of the 500 or so customers who went to the salon in the ten days between when it opened and was shut down.

The outbreak has led to an unprecedented level of testing in KFL&A. Almost 5,000 tests have been completed in the last week.

Although the outbreak raised alarm bells with Public Health, it is important to note that KFL&A remains at a very low risk level for COVID-19, said Dr. Moore.

“Even with these individual cases our rate is around 45 cases per 100,000 people,” he said. “The Southeastern rate is 144 per 100,000. The Ontario rate is 237, and the Canada-wide rate is 256. The United Sates rate is 817. The rate of infection in our community is relatively low risk remains low.”

These favourable numbers, in addition to social media posts that raised concerns about the Binh’s outbreak was the result of increased travel to Kingston from other parts of the Province where the case rate is higher, has led to a co-ordinated response from the City of Kingston, tourism partners, and Public Health.

In a release on Friday morning, July 3, entitled “Kingston organizations encourage community kindness” the groups first encourage people to be kind to each other, “collectively, we want to encourage residents to be kind to one another as we gradually and safely re-open parts of our community.”

Then, the release talks about people from outside of the community, including visitors from the United States and oversees who have legitimate reasons to be in the region, either for essential work, education, funerals.

“Whatever the reason, we should avoid making assumptions or being inhospitable because of where a person is from. The risk of COVID-19 across Canada remains significantly low and with the addition of the new mandatory mask order in the KFL&A area and with the closure of the US Border, this will continue to lower the risk,” the release says.

While residents in Kingston, and even more so in Frontenac County where there have been no confirmed cases since early May, are wary travelers, the partners point out that “there are no formal restrictions barring people from travelling regionally or throughout the country. Many people throughout the province will take the opportunity to travel regionally over the summer, and again, the risk is now very low across Ontario.”

The partners behind the media release include Tourism Kingston, the Kingston Economic Development Corporation and the Kingston Accommodation Partners.

On other matters, Dr. Moore said that as of Thursday, no fines had been levied for individuals who have been found not to have followed public health directives to self isolate, but the Public Health is investigating reports.

“We prefer to use information to impress on people how our orders are based on our best understanding of the science around COVID-19 and keeping the public safe, but we will not hesitate to levy fines if necessary,” he said.

He also moderated the position he took earlier in the week, when he speculated that the Section 22 order requiring masks be worn in commercial settings may be moderated in as little as two weeks to exempt church services and childcare settings.

(“As other jurisdictions in the province adopt mandatory masking, we will be looking to harmonize our regulations with those in other jurisdictions,” he said, “and we will be waiting to see what others are doing before making any changes.”