OTTAWA -- Ottawa's associate medical officer of health admits Ottawa is "getting close" to the point where the Ontario government will need to introduce new restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The comments came hours before the Ontario Goverment moved Ottawa to a modified Stage 2, closing bars and restaurants for indoor dining and shutting down fitness centres and movie theatres for at least 28 days.
Speaking on CTV Morning Live Friday morning, Ottawa Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brent Moloughney said the rising number of COVID-19 cases in our community is driving cases into schools, long-term care homes and hospitals.
"At some point, government will need to act to begin to institute restrictions," Moloughney said, adding everyone needs to do their part to limit COVID-19 spread.
"I think we need to do all we can to reduce our interactions. I would say that even if government does begins to introduce greater restrictions, we still need to reduce our interactions because a lot of this is occurring in people's homes, in social settings and restrictions don't easily reach those areas."
CTV Morning Live host Annette Goerner asked Moloughney at what point will the government need to introduce new restrictions.
"I think we're getting close. I think that we need to do all we can. I think that as the numbers go up, obviously it's of concern, as we're seeing hospitalizations go up they've doubled over the last week," said Moloughney.
"Right now we've got 30 outbreaks in long-term care and retirement homes, fortunately most of those is just one case but we have a low threshold there. We have another 24 outbreaks in child care and schools, so there's not a long time you can go with numbers like this."
On Thursday, Moloughney told reporters that Ottawa Public Health is "not yet seeing the curve slow down." He said Friday morning all Ottawa residents need to socialize with their households only this long weekend.
"I think really it is within our collective control to get this under control. I think that as of a week ago we identified that this is a crisis, that now is the time to reduce our social interactions to bend this curve this time. We've done it before, we can do it again, we know how to do it," he said.
"It's a little worrisome going into a long weekend, which is traditionally a time of gatherings and that is exactly should not happen this weekend. We really need to just stick with our households."
Goerner asked Moloughney if it is the actions of individuals that will lower the COVID-19 case count, instead of government restrictions.
"Yes, each of us in our daily lives there's the opportunity for social interaction and all of those add up and accumulate to give us the number of cases and outbreaks we're seeing right now," he said.
"It's very important at this point on we're socializing essentially with our household, and with everybody us it is two metres apart, wearing a mask because we need to reduce the transmission."
