CORNWALL, Ontario – Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Medical Officer of Health with the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) asked the public to treat his staff with more civility during a call with the media on Monday, March 22 after they were heavily involved with contact tracing calls as COVID-19 cases jumped by 71 over the weekend.
“We are recognized that people are frustrated. Our staff who have been doing contact tracing have been yelled at screamed at, abusive language. Sometimes our staff are in tears. The civility is gone. This has been experienced across health units in Ontario. They’re doing their job. They want to make sure to protect everyone else in our community,” Dr. Roumeliotis said.
Dr. Roumeliotis said that he had contacted Ontario Premier Doug Ford with his concerns and that the Premier told him that the treatment his staff was receiving was unacceptable.
“I’m pleading with everybody, they are just doing their job,” said Dr. Roumeliotis.
The rising cases of COVID-19 in the EOHU is pushing the region into the Red Zone of the provincial COVID-19 response rubric, beyond its current status in the Orange Zone.
To be in the Red Zone, a health unit must have a rolling seven day average of new COVID-19 cases of 40. Currently, the EOHU has a rolling seven day average of 63.7.
The Red Zone has harsher restrictions for businesses and public gatherings than the Orange Zone, and Dr. Roumeliotis warned that should cases continue to rise during the week, the EOHU might be placed in the Red Zone before Friday.
Currently, there are 227 active COVID-19 cases in the region. There are 93 active cases in Cornwall, six in the Northern portion of Akwesasne, 13 in South Glengarry, 19 in South Stormont, 22 in South Dundas, 10 in North Dundas, six in North Stormont, four in North Glengarry, four in East Hawkesbury, nine in Hawkesbury, two in Champlain, one in The Nation, eight in Casselman, 14 in Russell, 10 in Clarence-Rochland, and six in Alfred and Plantagenet.
There are currently 38 individuals hospitalized in the region with COVID-19 and six in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There have been 69 people who have died in the region of COVID-19 since March of 2020.
