As the fall and winter months make their way, Quinte Health is planning for COVID-19 and respiratory activity in the community.
“I will say that we are right in the midst of what they call a wavelet, not a wave,” president and CEO of Quinte Health, Stacey Daub, tells media about COVID-19 activity this season. “I think that in and of itself, calling it a wavelet is encouraging.”
Daub says when it comes to COVID-19 affecting the hospitals, there is a hope that the numbers won’t be so high as to impact hospitalizations and ICU admissions for COVID-19.
She says the message now for the public is to be thoughtful about loved ones.
“COVID still has killed people, especially older adults and older people. So the message to the public is thoughtfully think about your loved ones and who you interact with,” Daub says.
With a new vaccine on the way to deal with the current variants of COVID-19, Daub says Quinte Health is working with public health to best determine how to get the vaccines out into the community.
“They’re thinking about the COVID-19 vaccine in a different way. The vaccine that’s coming out this fall is more designed for the current variants that are actually within our community,” Daub explained.
“So we are working with public health to think about how to get those vaccines to the people in our community who need it most which would be older adults and other vulnerable populations.”
Daub says the push is equal for flu vaccines as they anticipate a longer flu season.
Quinte Health says COVID-19 activity is much less than it was 18 months ago but they are still monitoring a slight upward trend of hospitalized patients at Quinte Health as well as a detection of COVID in the wastewater in the southeast region of the province.
