Privacy and safety concerns were among the reasons why Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) Public Health decided to not offer municipality specific data on COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n
Danny Williamson, communication specialist with WDG Public Health, said they\u2019ve been talking with their community partners, whether that\u2019s municipal partners or others in the health care space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a demand both from our partners and the public to get more local with the data, and so that\u2019s something we\u2019re trying to respond to,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cThe [COVID-19] dashboard and the publicly available information has kind of shifted and grown throughout COVID-19, so it is something that we have been trying to do on an ongoing basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson said tomorrow (Dec. 1) people will be able to go on the COVID-19 dashboard, and see that the information will be drilled down to a more granular level.<\/p>\n
He said right now on their website they have the whole region, and they have the three main jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, basically, you\u2019ll be able to go down another level into that localized data,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cBut it will be kind of at the municipal level. You know, so Minto is a good example. Minto you\u2019ll be able to see specifically, that information.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Williamson said the COVID-19 dashboard only reports positive test numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also thinking about it this way, which is, really if there are two cases in Centre Wellington, what it tells us is that two people tested positive in Centre Wellington, what it doesn\u2019t tell us is what is the totality of COVID-19 look like in Centre Wellington,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Williamson said WDG Public Health are really still encouraging people to think about every interaction, and every place they go as a place where they could give COVID-19 or get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe [COVID-19] dashboard is great, and it tell us a lot of stuff, but it\u2019s not the only kind of guide post in how we should be judging our actions,\u201d Williamson said.<\/p>\n
He adds that it\u2019s important for people to understand what the dashboard is, and what it\u2019s good at, but also that is has limitations.<\/p>\n
Danny Williamson, communication specialist with WDG Public Health:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n