Dr. Mustafa Hirji grilled during Regional Health Committee Meeting
Members of Niagara’s Public Health and Social Services Committee meeting asking the Acting Medical Officer of Health to explain why Niagara is the only one of 27 health units to be placed in the grey category of the province’s colour coded COVID 19 system.
During yesterday’s meeting, Dr. Mustafa Hirji doing his best to explain the rationale behind the decision.
He says there were a number of factors that came into play, including the region's current rate of non-COVID related hospitalizations which remains high, the number of COVID outbreaks in long term care facilities and the number of recent deaths from the virus in the region
He also notes when the province decided to move us into the grey category there were 76 per 100,000 cases a week of the coronavirus which is higher than the threshold of 40 that would have allowed us to move into red.
Dr. Hirji points out should we experience a surge in cases, that would mean less health care workers able to vaccinate residents.
On the bright side, Hirji says it is possible the province will revisit the designation this coming Monday.
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