Some in the medical fraternity are concerned that the province may be approaching the pandemic too cautiously, and perhaps causing unintended consequences to those who are unable to access medical services.
The health authorities have begun to slowly resume some services, but there are still hundreds of empty hospital beds.
Newfoundland and Labrador hasn’t seen a single new case in 12 days, yet all the restrictions imposed under the alert regime on May 11 will continue until June 8, a total of 28 days.
Dr. Stephen Major says that’s a long time.
He says patients need access to all types of medical care such as chiropractic, acupuncture, physiotherapy, massage therapy, etc. He notes that we have had only five cases in the past month which indicates that there is no significant community spread.
The virus is probably going to be with us until a vaccine is created, but that could be a long time.
The doctor is a strong believer in the use of face masks and personal hygiene to control spread.
He says if our assumption is going to be zero cases, that is so aspirational that we will never get to the “new normal” which we are trying to achieve.