Canada’s chief public health officer says that we won’t see the impacts of the measures to combat COVID-19 right away.
Dr. Theresa Tam says that there is a lag of about two weeks from when people are tested to when they get the data.
“When people get sick, they then have to present, get tested and get the test results,” says Tam, “…then it takes time for Public Health to investigate an outbreak, and both find and test those who may have been exposed to the virus.”
She adds that because of this, the impacts of things like social distancing won’t be felt until later.
“When some of the key public health measures were put in a couple of weeks ago, the lag means that we won’t see the impact of those measures for a little while.”
When it comes to the peak of the pandemic, Tam adds that like everything else, we won’t know until it’s already passed.
“That’s another concept we all need to remember is that this will keep going until we get to the other side … we won’t know we’ve hit the peak (when we do) since it takes a little bit of lag time.”
Tam explains that they’re finding most cases still coming from high-risk settings, such as long-term care facilities.
She adds that as of Wednesday morning, there have been over 9,000 confirmed cases, which accounts for 3.7 per cent of over 250,000 Canadians tested.
