PARRY SOUND, ON-Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Parry Sound assessment centre has tested and confirmed four cases of the virus in people who were not residents.
Nurse Practitioner Katie Hogue told MyParrySoundNow that in all of the six confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community, four of them have been from people who were not from the area.
When asked about why people who are confirmed cases are not being tallied in the local health unit, Hogue said that tracing and counting is up to the health unit where the individual is from.
Anyone outside the North Bay-Parry Sound region will be marked down through the health unit where their primary residence is.
“I have spoken to public health about this, and it can be confusing as it can actually skew the numbers,” said Hogue. “If health units duplicate those numbers, it can look like there are more numbers than there actually are.”
Hogue said that when a person who is not a resident is confirmed to have the virus, they are neither forced to go home or stay in the area while they self-isolate. It comes down to what is the safest for that individual and what that person’s safety plan is.
In situations like these, Hogue said that the person who runs the assessment centre would contact the individual and check up on them as well as ask a series of questions. “We will ask where are they quarantining, are they planning on going back, are they able to quarantine where they are and are they able to get groceries? There is no prescribed plan.”
Hogue said it’s important for residents to know that people who are from out of town are in the area, and they may be isolating here as they may have a second residence.
“Although the numbers from public health report it as zero, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have COVID-19 in our community, we need to act as though it is here.”