Niagara's top doctor warns region is approaching a 'tipping point' in contact tracing

Niagara's Acting Medical Officer of Health warns the region is at a tipping point when it comes to contact tracing.

Right now, Niagara Public Health is still able to follow through on tracing, but Dr. Mustafa Hirji warns the region is on the verge of having to scale back.

Hirji explains in some areas public health agencies in hotspots, like Toronto, have already had to make that decision.

"You have so many cases with so many contacts that you can't follow up with all of them because you're not able to fully follow up with them, especially in the detail you'd like. You're maybe missing chains of infection, and so that of course fuels more cases and you end up in this vicious cycle."

He once again urges Niagara residents to cut down their number of social contacts.

"The absolute top reason we see people becoming infected is they happen to have a member of their household who has an infection and then unfortunately that infection spreads through the rest of their household. And the way that infection gets to one person in the household is because people have a fairly active social life, they've interacted with multiple different people out in society, and unfortunately that has increased their risk that one of the people they interacted with has COVID-19 and they unfortunately bring it into their home."

Click here to listen to Hirji's full interview with Tim Denis.