A spike in new COVID cases: Sudbury immunologist shares what needs to happen to stop the spread

A Sudbury immunologist says it's very concerning to see an increase in COVID-19 cases in the area.

On Wednesday night, Public Health Sudbury & Districts announced 10 new cases of the virus. In the past week-and-a-half, the health unit has said a total of 22 new cases have been reported.

The majority of cases were connected to someone who had travelled, however seven have no known exposure to the virus.

Alain Simard is an immunologist with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

"We were in a very good situation with no cases for many weeks which showed that we had a very good control of the spreading of the virus," he said.

"All of a sudden, we have a jump in new cases. So that's definitely something we don't want to see."

Simard says if this trend continues, officials may have to consider putting measures in place to help stop the spread of the virus. However, he says implementing a lockdown isn't the answer.

"We can keep the majority of businesses and most of our activities open," he said.

"There are still a few types of businesses and activities that are at much higher risk. Those, we probably should consider whether to allow them or not."

Community spread

He says higher risk activities and places include gyms, bars and indoor dining. He says caution can be taken when doing other activities. He says people should be only going out for essentials, practice physical distancing and wearing a mask while out.

"Being completely locked down has a lot of other impacts on society that are difficult to measure," he said.

"It's not just a question of considering the virus, we have to consider other factors as well."

Simard says the fact that several of the cases have unknown exposure suggests community spread.

"When cases are related to travel, we can consider them a bit more isolated, we know where it's coming from," he said.

"In this case here, it means the virus is in our community."