Every day at noon for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency, a group led by Mayor George Pirie called the Timmins Health Table will issue an update. Here are details from today’s update.
DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS
The chief nursing officer from the Porcupine Health Unit says not to get too excited over two consecutive days with no positive COVID-19 test results.
Chantal Riopel emphasizes that fewer tests were processed over the Easter weekend.
“The lab was working different hours, which may have had an impact on reporting the test results,” she explains. “So two days without a positive case does not mean that we are able to change how we behave in our community.”
“We need to continue to monitor positive cases and see where it’s at and hopefully we’ll be able to speak to a flattening of the curve in the near future, but right now we’re not able to speak to that.”
With no new positives reported Sunday or Monday, the current total in the PHU area stays at 39.
MAYOR SYMPATHIZES WITH SMALL BUSINESS
Mayor George Pirie was thinking of small business owners during today’s conference call from his health table.
He mentioned that there’s a great deal of stress among them, wondering what’s next.
“Will they be able to survive this, to see basically their life’s future, economic future in doubt,” he said, continuing with “These are very troubling times for all. I want to thank those individuals of course that have taken themselves out of the economy and are participating fully in all that is asked of them.”
Pirie tried to offer some positive reinforcement by mentioning that a lot of bright people are doing great things during the pandemic, pointing to the Ottawa invention of a faster COVID-19 tester.
Here is the raw audio of today’s update: