Too early to declare third wave, according to HKPR doctor

DAN CEARNS, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, for The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: Despite the Ontario Hospital Association recently declaring Ontario is in a third wave of COVID-19, Kawartha Lakes’ top doctor has cast doubt on that finding.

“I am a wee bit more circumspect about this. I think we need to look at the numbers over a longer period of time to decide this. Typically, this is a little bit too soon for a third wave of a virus to happen,” Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPR) Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Gemmill said, during an online press conference, on Wednesday, March 17th. However, he noted COVID-19 is still somewhat new in terms of research on how it behaves.

“Maybe it’s going to be behaving differently. Maybe its natural history is different. I would be expecting a third wave; if it [were] going to happen, it would be happening next autumn. But, it’s also possible the reason we are seeing an increase in cases is because people are getting a little bit more cavalier, because they think ‘oh, the vaccine is here.’ Well, it’s not here until it is in everybody’s arms,” Dr. Gemmill explained.

The acting medical officer also suggested the third wave could be a new wave of variants. But he currently feels we’re still in the second wave, with a bit of a bump in cases.