Article content continued

Neither Colby nor Marshall knew if the man had called ahead before coming to the emergency room, but he was not hospitalized.

“He certainly did fit the criteria for testing and he was tested right away,” Colby said.

Colby said there have been 52 people tested in Chatham-Kent for COVID-19 but only one positive case so far. The results of 14 other tests are still to come back, he added.

Most people who contract this virus are “not going to be get critically ill,” Colby said.

The vast majority of cases can be managed at home, which is preferable, he added.

“That’s going to be the standard of care,” he said.

With Chatham-Kent having a large population of elderly residents, including some with chronic diseases, Colby said that “could mean that we’re hit harder.”

Social distancing is aimed at protecting these vulnerable members of society, he said.

“I would love to stop this virus in its tracks,” Colby said. “That’s probably not going to happen.”

He said extreme measures are being taken in the hopes of not overwhelming the health-care system.

“Delaying the onset of this infection in a significant proportion of the population spreads the need for health services over a long period of time rather than a small fraction that needs acute and intensive care all at once,” Colby said.

When it comes to dealing with a serious outbreak of the virus, Marshall said “we would use every single available space in the organization.”

She said the health alliance has been taking steps to deal with the pandemic.

Noting people are aware of the term hallway health care, Marshall confirmed the hospital has been ” functioning at about 100 per cent occupancy” in the weeks leading up the outbreak.

In anticipation of the changes coming, she said the health alliance worked with the Erie-St. Clair LHIN, home and community care group, and various other community organization to reduce the occupancy to 90 per cent.

She added more beds are anticipated to be freed up as the hospital moves to further reduce elective surgeries and other non-emergency clinical activities.

Marshall said there are 200 hospital beds between the Chatham and Wallaceburg hospital sites, which includes obstetrical beds.

“I don’t think we can stop babies from being born right now,” she said.

Marshal said there are also critical-care beds that have ventilators, “so we want to make sure we have the right patients in critical care.”

She added those who don’t need critical care can be moved to other medical or surgical units.

At some stage, Marshall said there could be decisions that need to be made about people being cared for in other places who don’t need the services of an acute \-care facility.

She believes the “best thing people can say when all of this is done is that we over-reacted.”

eshreve@postmedia.com

@Chathamnews