Here's what two top doctors think about how Windsor-Essex has handled the pandemic so far

Two top doctors atWindsor-Essex hospitals say that overall the region has done a good job of handling the pandemic, but now isn't the time to let our guard down.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise once again, old restrictions are coming into play across the country as health officials warnof a second wave that could be far worse than the first. In the past week, Ontario has reported new daily case counts with numbers not seen since the early months of the pandemic. But in Windsor-Essex, cases remain low and relatively stable.

And while that's a good sign, Erie Shores Healthcare chief of staff Dr. Ross Moncurtold CBC News that doesn't mean we can't still "see the same things here."

"We were certainly a few weeks behind what we saw in the [Greater Toronto Area]and in some of the larger cities with denser populations," he said of when the pandemic first began.

At the start of the pandemic, he added,there was a "tremendous"learning curve when it came to handling cases in the agri-farm sector.Locally, theindustry was behinda large spike in COVID-19 cases, which held the region back from entering Stage 3 of reopening with the rest of the province.

And while Moncur, who is also the interim CEO at Erie Shores,said he doesn't think we should take our low case rate now as "any sign of being in the clear," but we should acknowledge the good job the region has done in slowing the spread.

"I think our entire community needs to be applauded for their efforts and in helping to protect the vulnerable people of ourcommunities, but also the health system itself," Moncur said.

Windsor Regional Hospital chief of staff Dr. Wassim Saadhad similar thoughts and said if he had to place a letter grade on how well the region has performed so far, he'd give it an A.

"Obviously we could have done some things better to give us an A+," he said. " [But] we never were overwhelmed in terms of hospital capacity ... in terms of ICU capacity, we never had to make the tough decisions about ventilator resources ... In terms of flattening the curve and protecting healthcare resources as a whole, Ithink we did an amazing job."

He added that the local health-care system was proactive in setting up its assessment centres and that from the start of the crisisthey prioritized patients who needed testing.

For that reason, unlike the strain currently being experienced in other parts of the province, Windsor-Essex assessment centres don't have to turn people awayand are still able to continue testing everyone who wants one.

Watch: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's address to the country

Justin Trudeau's full address

4 years ago

Duration 12:28

In a rare evening address to the nation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that Canada is "on the brink of a fall that could be much worse than the spring," and called upon Canadians to do their part to stem the tide of rising COVID-19 cases.

'Pandemic fatigue'

On Wednesday, in a rare public address to the nation Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said we are at the start of the second wave and asked that people continue to be diligent in following public health guidelines.

This "cautious" address was one that Saadsaid was needed so that people know we "are notout of the woods."

In the last few weeks, the region has seen an uptick in community cases that resulted from sleep-overs, parties and other get-togethers.

Moncur said it's evident that we're seeing "pandemic fatigue," where people are getting tired of the restrictions.

"Everybody wants to be back to normal and I think we we need to remember that this is not normal," he said. "Even though things like dinners out and drinks with our friends seem like something that we really need, we need to really think about whether that's essential or not.

"These interactions are what's going to be make or break for a real surge of COVIDin our community."

At this point, both doctors say it's too early to know what the fall or winter months will look like for Windsor-Essex, but they are still bracing for a surge.

"I think it's too soon to tell whether we're really a success story yet," Saad said.

As of Friday, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported five new cases of COVID-19 bringing the region's total to 2,644 cases. Of those, 2,492 are resolved.

Since March, 76 people in the community have died.