Here's why it may be time to up your mask game against COVID-19

York Region residents were careful but still caught U.K. variants in 'just a minute or 2'

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 4, 2021
Kim Zarzour

York Region has some alarming news for residents: the U.K. variant is here and it does not take much to catch it.

You may have thought you were being careful before, but health experts say it's time to do even more.

Some residents who tested positive were infected after being in a retail store for just a few minutes, said Dr. Karim Kurji, the region’s medical officer of health.

“Some of these people who caught it were just doing essential visits and not for very much time, just a minute or two,” he said. “Those cases were quite careful in many instances, but seem to have the variant of concern nevertheless.”

To date, a total of 39 people -- in Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Newmarket, King and Georgina -- screened positive for a COVID-19 “variant of concern.”

Of these, 19 are confirmed B.1.1.7 (U.K. variant). The remaining 20 variant cases are undergoing confirmatory testing by the provincial lab to identify the specific lineage (e.g., U.K. variant, South African variant, etc.), said Patrick Casey, the region’s director of corporation communications.

The only region with a higher number of variants is Simcoe-Muskoka where B.1.1.7 ran rampant through a Barrie long-term care home.

Public Health Ontario (PHO) warns B.1.1.7 is a  significant threat and could become the dominant strain in Ontario by March, posing an increased threat to public health and hospital capacity.

It's become clear the virus is a moving target. Given how easily this new mutation is transmitted, PHO suggests officials reduce the thresholds for who is regarded as a close contact when identifying who may have been exposed.

For most jurisdictions, a high-risk contact is one who had face-to-face interaction within two metres for at least 15 minutes.

In York Region, the threshold is less than 10 minutes.

“At the very beginning of the pandemic, these guidelines were not very clear, so we established this rule and we have stuck with that,” Kurji said. “That is subjective on the part of our case investigators as there are a number of factors to take into account, like what interactions do they see? What protective measures have been followed? Were both parties wearing masks? Were they talking in low tones?”

In a StatsCan study released Feb. 3, the overwhelming majority of Canadians reported wearing a mask in public places (98%), washing their hands more frequently (96%), maintaining a two-metre distance (96%), avoiding gatherings (95%) and avoiding leaving the house for non-essential reasons (74%).

What else can we do?

A growing number of health experts call for double masking.

“New variants seem to be airborne, meaning distancing and regular masks may not be enough," said Dr. Kashif Pirzada, a Toronto emergency physician and co-founder of Masks4Canada.

With the variant circulating in the community, it is more dangerous for people working in factories or kitchens and for anyone venturing into a crowded store, Pirzada said.

Even if we masked, there is still a risk from someone unmasked in a store coughing or sneezing. Masks do not provide perfect protection.

“We used to say your mask protects others, others' masks protect you. Now we need to make sure our masks protect ourselves, too.”

In the U.K., where B.1.1.7 has been present for eight weeks, they've been able to keep a lid on spread by continuing with lockdowns, he said. In Europe, governments have been issuing N95s to the general population, and along with the U.S., these places all have more vaccines.

Pirzada is concerned Canada is lagging in many ways.

"We are facing an uphill climb in these provinces that are hell-bent on opening up."

If schools must open, there are ways to do it safely by putting HEPA filters in every classroom, opening windows, delaying opening to summer when kids can be outside and ensuring teachers have better masks, he said.

"If we let up, if we're not doing everything we can, we're going to have a tough time in a couple of months -- if not sooner."