THE CHATHAM VOICE
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
PAGE 3
News
Latest COVID wave to linger into May: Colby By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com
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Nash Aarssen, a Grade 8 student at Georges P. Vanier School in Chatham, is all smiles after raising $850 in dishwasher magnet sales as part of his Kingdom Project. He donated his profits to Rise House International.
Rock-athon set for Saturday
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Meanwhile, for Nash’s father, there’s some catching up to be done. The members of his band, Walkin’ 47, are helping to organize the Rock-a-thon. It will feature a host of local bands. “There will be a band every hour,” Scott said, “running 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. All local acts and they all donated their time.
“We want to keep the music going. We encourage donations throughout the day. And you can always donate directly on the Rise House website,” he added. On top of the flow of donations from patrons during the event, Sons of Kent will donate all the proceeds from a special beer they are brewing for the event.
Up for auction that day will be a guitar signed by Kid Rock. For more details, visit https://risehouse.ca/ rock-a-thon/ Hime said she’s really looking forward to Rocka-thon. “It will be such an awesome event. I love live music,” she said. “So this will see two of my passions come together.”
With five more deaths in Chatham-Kent last week due to COVID-19 and more than 200 new cases, we are still in the sixth wave of the virus. That from C-K medical officer of health David Colby in his report to the Board of Health on April 20. Chatham-Kent Health Alliance officials reported on Monday there were 12 people in hospital primarily due to COVID-19. Two are in the ICU. Colby implores people to get vaccinated, as figures indicate that individuals with at least two doses of the vaccine are much less likely to suffer harmful outcomes should they contract the virus. The chances of hospitalization drop by more than 71 per cent, of being in the ICU by nearly 81 per cent, and reduces chances of death by 43.5 per cent. “If there was something we could do to decrease road accidents and road
“Forget about the disinformation that’s out there, the rumours of side effects. Everything has side effects. But compared to deaths, hospitalization and ICU occupancy, they are a pittance.”
- Dr. David Colby
accident deaths by these figures, we would not hesitate to do it,” Colby said. “I would implore everyone to take these figures to heart. Forget about the disinformation that’s out there, the rumours of side effects. Everything has side effects. But compared to deaths, hospitalization and ICU occupancy, they are a pittance.” He added the sixth wave appears to be in decline, but it will be a slow one. Colby said data from the Ontario Science Table predicts large numbers of hospitalizations of patients until at least midMay. “Even with a mid-level
of transmission as a best estimate, it is anticipated that we’ll be seeing over 3,000 patients in hospital in Ontario and we could be dealing with more than 4,000,” he said. A problem lies in the ability to handle the caseloads. Because of the high degree of transmission by the latest variants, Colby said hospital personnel will be susceptible, and if they contract the virus in large numbers, matters could spiral dangerously. “Whether or not there is hospital capacity in terms of beds to handle that surge is an open question. Hospital workers are not going to be immune from getting infected, and you also have to have the professional staff to be able to run your hospital,” he said. “Things could get very different indeed. You might have to call people into work that might be infectious and then deal with ensuing hospital outbreaks that would be inevitable regardless of PPE.”
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