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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, S ep te m be r 10 ,2 02 0 | 4 work" of residents for main- taining social distancing, following hand hygiene and wearing masks and face coverings. "It all makes a difference, it all adds up. All those small individual actions add up to produce what we're seeing in Halton overall, which are low counts," she said. With the reopening of schools, there is concern that it may lead to a surge in the numbers. "We've seen in other ju- risdictions that as schools reopened, the numbers do increase, and the degree to which those increases hap- pen really has to do with community transmission," she noted. Halton Region Public Health has been working with school boards and schools to support the back- to-school plan and prepara- tion. Dr. Hamidah Meghani, the region's medical officer of health, shared in a video update that they're confi- dent that their collective ef- forts will provide safe and productive learning envi- ronments for students and staff. "For our part, we provide guidance, in line with the provincial plan, around im- plementing appropriate in- fection prevention and con- trol measures," she said. The measures include active daily screening, no mixing of cohorts in ele- mentary schools, having older children wear face coverings, enhanced hand hygiene and cleaning and providing staff with PPE. The health department also offers additional re- sources for parents, includ- ing mental health resourc- es, on its website at hal- ton.ca/covid19. As for the expected sec- ond wave in the fall, Alam says it's difficult to gauge what it's going to look like. "We won't know until we're in it," she added. There's a possibility that it can be more severe in terms of numbers when looking at what's happening in other parts of the world, she says. Compounding the con- cern is how the second wave will coincide with the cold and flu season. "We're all worried be- cause we don't know what this coming season is going to look like. We're worried about our local resources being able to match patients' needs," she said. "We're watching very carefully." The way to control the in- fection and keep it at a slow burn - so that it won't over- whelm the health-care sys- tem - is to maintain and in- corporate social distancing, masks and strict hand hy- giene into people's regular lives, according to Alam. These are the same mea- sures that have been work- ing in helping drive the rates of infection down. Alam also urges every- one to get more familiar with the symptom list of CO- VID-19, and stay home and not go to work or send their children to school if they or their kids have any of the symptoms. "Get tested and get ad- vice on what you should be doing," she said, adding that it's also important to down- load the COVID-19 alert app for the purpose of contact tracing. She said that these are difficult times, not just for the government but for deci- sion-makers everywhere, whether at school boards or in the hospital or as a parent at home. "Expect to be tired, ex- pect that you'll get irritable and frustrated, "she said. "But it's important to stay calm and to be kind." STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Adherence to health and social distanc- ing guidelines helped drive local COVID-19 cases down, but more perseverance is required to minimize the spread of infection during an expected second wave. NEWS Continued from page 3 CONTINUED VIGILANCE VITAL, SAYS LOCAL PHYSICIAN