“School-based vaccination campaigns. Early in the fall we were able to get some work done on that but there’s so much we have to do and we’re very eager to get back to this important work.”
“Certainly when we look to accessing the PCR testing as a provincial strategy that the teams are working at the province. Look over that at what metrics are needed to track COVID-19 as well as accessability or resource allocations that are going through the province.”
“We have the constellation of metrics. We have the cases that are being originated with the hospitalizations that are occurring, the tracking of absence rates in schools.”
“At this moment with the state of the pandemic, this is presenting a good overview of data and we feel confident on understanding from the local picture of what cases may be originating.”
Toumishay added, “This is something we need to evaluate continuously as to where we’re at, how many cases at this stage of the pandemic with the available data. We have been able to see the rise in cases even from the point when PCR testing changed, then tracking it down.”
“Individuals who are ending up in ICU – that these are the foundations. So from the data that we have available, currently we’re very confident of understanding case transmission dynamics here. It’s important that we have all the stakeholders and partners that are evaluating this through the pandemic on what’s the actual surveillance needs for COVID-19 activity going forward.”
“What levels that would be at but it really underscores the importance of things such as vaccinations because we see there’s going to be some degree of ongoing risk. Certainly in the near term foreseen for COVID-19, it’s not going away in the short term at all. So encourage people who haven’t been vaccinated yet to get vaccinated. Or if you’re eligible for boosters.”
When questioned whether or not COVID-19 would become an endemic, Toumishey answered, “People should stay up to date on their vaccinations because this is going to be very important. At endemic stage or not I wouldn’t be able to comment. It will take time for us to know if at endemic stage or not.”
“If there is something that I see with the teams here. It’s a personal passion, prioritizing for when we can get the program services up and running – that is truly a breadth of work that we’re engaged with community and services across the life span for individuals. When we can have more services that are being delivered with vaccination conditions beyond COVID-19, we have needs from our sexual health services that are being provided in the community.
“Promotion work that the health unit does with communities, with residents so we can best support them to live healthy and full lives. This is crucial.”
