While COVID still lingers in Simcoe-Muskoka with surges undoubtedly to come, the local health unit is slowly returning to the programs that have been on hold while scaling back from COVID response.
COVID vaccine clinics are slowing with reduced hours and locations, but the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit has other immunization tasks ahead of it.
Since spring of 2020, there have been no Grade 7 in-school vaccination programs, which has left a backlog of three cohorts of students.
Typically, the health unit offers immunization against hepatitis B, human papillomavirus (HPV), and the meningococcal conjugate C-ACYW vaccine to students in Grade 7.
“We are, as a health unit, transitioning back into getting staff into regular programming, and getting regular programming up and running again,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, during a media briefing on March 23. “Routine childhood immunizations – those provided in schools beyond COVID vaccines – that’s an area of focus for us later in the spring and fall.”
He anticipated it will take several weeks to return staff and regular programming, and it will depend on the course of the pandemic from here.
“It’s a gradual process, but happening quite quickly at this time,” said Gardner. “We have a lot of groundwork to do to take stock on regular program delivery to decide how and when and where to begin.”
Gardner said the region is not the same as it was before March 2020.
Opioid-related deaths in Simcoe-Muskoka have increased by 70 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels. They had been on the rise even before COVID-19 arrived to the region.
There were 132 confirmed and probable opioid-related deaths in Simcoe-Muskoka in the first nine months of 2021, which is 33 per cent higher than in the first nine months of 2020, according to the health unit.
Between March 2020 and September 2021, the health unit reported 245 opioid-related deaths in the region.
“One of the areas of importance (for public health post-pandemic programming) would be mental health promotion and addressing substance use and the opioid crisis,” said Gardner. “We are really taking stock overall of where our gaps are and what we can commence.”
And while the health unit works to resume regular programming, there will continue to be a pandemic response that waxes and wanes as transmission and illness spread.
Wastewater monitoring in the region shows an increase of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID in Barrie, and a plateau in the levels of viral RNA found in wastewater samples in Collingwood, Midland and Orillia.
The region is seeing a slight surge in cases, even with limited testing.
Cases confirmed in Simcoe-Muskoka during the fifth wave of the pandemic surpassed all previous waves combined, even with severe limits on who could get tested. There were 151 local deaths during the first wave, also the highest for the pandemic.
Gardner is advising people to assess risks, keep up with personal protective measures, and to get vaccinated, including booster doses.
“COVID-19 is behaving in a seasonal way, and we may very well see a rise next fall and winter,” said Gardner. “I have no doubt that we will continue, for a number of years, having a program that’s dedicated to COVID response … We will need to, as much as possible, strike a balance between that and having resources dedicated to other programs.”
More than two years after the pandemic began, Gardner said he is left with a strong impression of the value of a community approach.
He noted the health unit now has much stronger ties with many sectors from pharmacies to first-responders, municipalities, health-care providers, the media, and the business community.
“The greatest learning of all in a crisis of this nature is to look to the community to come together. That is what is needed, and what happens,” he said.
