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Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...hould-covid-19-spread-widely-in-b-c-1.5478069
Empty streets unlikely should COVID-19 spread widely in B.C.
If the virus becomes an epidemic, health officials say they will treat it like seasonal flu
CBC News ? Posted: Feb 27, 2020 12:20 PM PT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
The images of empty streets, shuttered shops and closed borders coming out of China and Italy are an indication of one way public health officials can react to the COVID-19 outbreak.
But should the disease become epidemic in B.C., it's unlikely those kinds of scenes will play out here.
That's because the containment measures currently in place for those diagnosed with COVID-19 will actually slacken should the the disease spread through the population, according to public health officials.
"When you have community transmission of a respiratory pathogen, counterintuitively your interventions actually become different and, in some ways less, restrictive," said Dr. Reka Gustafson, medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health...
...."The one key difference to remember is that when a virus is new, there is no pre-existing immunity in the population. There's no vaccine, nobody has met this virus before, so there is a potential for a lot of people to get sick at the same time," she said.
In the event of a widespread outbreak, testing for COVID-19 will likely focus only on the most severe cases, says Gustafson. People with symptoms will be advised to stay at home until they are well, and employers will be encouraged to support their sick workers...
Empty streets unlikely should COVID-19 spread widely in B.C.
If the virus becomes an epidemic, health officials say they will treat it like seasonal flu
CBC News ? Posted: Feb 27, 2020 12:20 PM PT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
The images of empty streets, shuttered shops and closed borders coming out of China and Italy are an indication of one way public health officials can react to the COVID-19 outbreak.
But should the disease become epidemic in B.C., it's unlikely those kinds of scenes will play out here.
That's because the containment measures currently in place for those diagnosed with COVID-19 will actually slacken should the the disease spread through the population, according to public health officials.
"When you have community transmission of a respiratory pathogen, counterintuitively your interventions actually become different and, in some ways less, restrictive," said Dr. Reka Gustafson, medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health...
...."The one key difference to remember is that when a virus is new, there is no pre-existing immunity in the population. There's no vaccine, nobody has met this virus before, so there is a potential for a lot of people to get sick at the same time," she said.
In the event of a widespread outbreak, testing for COVID-19 will likely focus only on the most severe cases, says Gustafson. People with symptoms will be advised to stay at home until they are well, and employers will be encouraged to support their sick workers...