A doctor from Courtenay has revealed a positive case of coronavirus in the Comox Valley.
Dr. Tanja Daws made a post to Facebook on Sunday morning that indicates a confirmed case has arrived in Comox.
“For all the local Comox Valley Folk – COVID has arrived and has been confirmed already. Yup, a local friendly neighbour of yours tested positive,” Haws post reads.
CHEK News has been in contact with Dr. Daws who hoped more information surrounding the Comox Valley case would be announced in Monday’s provincial briefing with BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
“Government is doing well to inform people but they’re just not giving a lot of specifics so people think they’re safe when they’re not necessarily safe,” Daws told CHEK News Monday.
Dr. Bonnie Henry would only confirm seven new cases on Vancouver Island but would not specify where.
On Monday CHEK News obtained a copy of a letter from Island Health to parents and staff at the Comox Valley Waldorf School in Courtenay. The letter says a member of the school community tested positive for Covid-19 and is in good condition, self-isolating at home.
Dr. Daws says she posted about the case because she is concerned the public here on the Island isn’t taking the situation seriously enough and is worried about a health system collapsing under the pressure of more cases.
“The vast majority of people are still going about life like normal – folks your pants are down your ankles. You may not get screwed personally, and may come away safe due to other’s’ efforts, but your auntie or grandpa or somebody else you will infect will be dead. Not a good, peaceful, gentle death. A grim suffocating death from respiratory failure,” she wrote.
“They have to practice social isolation. Every day that people delay that the numbers can actually go up 40%,” said Daws.
Daws thinks that if the outbreak reaches our tighter communities, it could be devastating.
“If 100,000 size communities see fast spread thousands will die. 10% more than if contained. And not just COVID patients – strokes, heart attacks, flu’s, traumas and everybody else with anything else with some risk of mortality. COVID alone means 8000 will need hospital admission, 2000 ICU. We don’t have it. We cannot build a hospital in a week. Or even a month. If spread happens in a short time we are at war triage like Italy. No one over 80 gets a bed. Later no one over 65,” reads Daws statement.
CHEK News
