“It’s going to take time” says virus expert on getting through COVID-19 crisis

In an article in the Winnipeg Free Press today, Kevin Rollason reports on an interview with Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor in medical microbiology at the University of Manitoba and the Canada Research Chair in emerging viruses.

A Winnipeg virus expert who worked in West Africa during the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak, Kindrachuk  said Canadians will be battling COVID-19 for weeks to come.

Jason Kindrachuk… said Tuesday that people shouldn’t take the three-week closures announced by governments and businesses as an indication of when the country’s fight with the the virus will be behind it.

“Three weeks is an extremely optimistic viewpoint,” he said.

“It is going to take time… People need to think longer than for the next few weeks. Not only do we have to hit the peak, we have to get past that peak and see a reduction in the total number of cases. And we also have to keep social distancing in place.

“If we take these protective measures away too fast, the virus will be transmitted again.”

Read the entire article here.