Public Health Sudbury and Districts issues COVID-19 order as region becomes hot spot

As Greater Sudbury has become a COVID-19 hot spot in Ontario, the region's medical officer of health has issued a class order to slow spread of the virus.

As of Thursday morning, Sudbury and Manitoulin districts had 209 active COVID-19 cases.

According to Public Health Sudbury and Districts' class order, anyone with a confirmed case and is awaiting test results or has been a close contact to someone who has tested positive for the virus must self-isolate for 10 days, or until they receive a negative COVID-19 result.

Medical officer of health Dr. Penny Sutcliffe said in a statement the class order is enforceable by law. People who do not comply with the order can be fined $750 on a first offence. The fine can go up to $5,000 for repeated offences.

"While the province of Ontario is seeing improvements in COVID-19 case counts, trends in Greater Sudbury are going in the opposite direction," she said in the statement.

Sutcliffe added Greater Sudbury has a COVID-19 case rate that is among the highest in the province.

She said the number of cases in the region without any known source of exposure has increased over the last few months.

There are also seven active outbreaks in Greater Sudbury. As of Thursday morning, these included 59 connected with the Sudbury Jail, 21 with Memorial Park and six cases from outbreaks at two schools.

"As you make decisions about your day-to-day activities, including plans for outings and gatherings, think about the steps you can take to reduce the risk of COVID-19," Sutcliffe said.

Preventing a lockdown

In a follow-up interview with the CBC, Sutcliffe said Sudbury is not yet in a situation where a lockdown would be necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"We're not seeing a specific environment or settings where we're seeing lots of outbreaks of cases," she said. "We're seeing a generalized increase in our number of cases in addition to some outbreaks."

But Sutcliffe added she would not hesitate to put in stricter measures to prevent transmission, if the situation were to worsen.

Vaccines reduce the risk of infection

On vaccines, Sutcliffe said provincial data has shown that an individual is six times more likely to be infected by COVID-19 if they are unvaccinated. 

"So vaccinations absolutely prevent the risk of infection," she said. "But as or perhaps even more importantly, they also prevent serious disease and illness from COVID 19 infection."

But she said fully vaccinated individuals should still take precautions, such as masking and physical distancing, because no vaccine provides 100 per cent protection. If someone feels unwell they should stay home, she said, even if they are fully vaccinated.