"We are still behind in the curve here," says head of Northwestern Health Unit

Health officials in the farthest west portion of Ontario have reason to believe the region will not be inundated with COVID-19 patients.

Nearly 350 tests have come back as negative, with about 230 tests still being analyzed.

"I think this is a good sign. I think we are still behind in the curve here, so we do have time before we are dealing with this wave that is now largely affecting other parts of Ontario," said Dr. Ian Gemmill, the acting medical officer of health for the NWHU.

Gemmill said he is hopeful people with seasonal homes will continue to heed the message that travel between northwestern Ontario and other regions is considered unnecessary.

Gemmill re-iterated that the region can likely handle the COVID-19 cases for people who live in the area and become sick from the virus, but not an influx of people from elsewhere.

More testing

Gemmill, along with Ray Racette, the president and CEO of the Lake of the Woods District Hospital said they look forward to the provincial government increasing the amount of testing for the virus.

He said there is no specific number of tests he wants to see administered in the area, but said a figure in the thousands would be appropriate, with local labs, once they are equipped and approved to analyze the swabs, able to deliver local results in a matter of hours.

"That's ultimately going to come as an additional area of service, and certainly Thunder Bay is looking at that, as we are, as is Sioux Lookout. We are looking at the opportunity as well to send specimens into Manitoba."

Racette said the region's distance from other major centres gives it an advantage in learning best practices on managing the virus from other areas.

He said the hospital is still working on reducing its occupancy, but is still dealing with some staffing shortages because of employees in self-isolation.

Racette said the hospital has seven ventilators and 12 ICU beds ready for any admitted cases of COVID-19. He said the hospital is also looking at creating COVID positive and non-positive units as well.

The other major challenge for the hospital is that it has only received about 20 per cent of its personal protective equipment, Racette said.

He also noted the Keewatin Arena will be ready to accept people in precarious situations this week, by creating a space for 30 people to reside if they need to self-isolate, adding it is meant to be a temporary measure and will be transformed back into an arena by mid to end of June.