Peel Region’s top doctor reflects on the highs and lows of 2021

The moment Dr. Lawrence Loh found out the Delta variant was circulating widely in Peel Region and it would mean more COVID-19 cases, hospitalization and deaths, he was overcome with emotion.

It had been a long second year as Peel’s Medical Officer of Health, a position he was thrust into on March 13, 2020, days before the first lockdown.

He has since emerged as one of the most well-known public health doctors in the province, often ahead of the rest to flatten the curve, for one of, if not the hardest hit, regions in the province.

As cases were rising, Dr. Loh went above and beyond provincial restrictions for his region, shutting down workplaces, cancelling wedding receptions and was the first area to announce the closure of schools in Peel Region, a week before all schools were shut down across Ontario.

“The reality is we were having so many closures, so many dismissals that COVID was already closing our schools for us haphazardly, so the question was do we just let COVID continue to do that or do we take matters into our own hands. So that was one decision our team really struggled with,” said. Dr. Loh.

And Dr. Loh is never one to take full credit, he explains to CityNews how it was a joint decision between Peel and Toronto, he was just the first to announce.

“Peel and Toronto actually had intended to go together. I had been speaking with Eileen [Dr. Eileen De Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health] and they had been seeing similar challenges across the 427,” said Dr. Loh.

“All the difficult decisions that we had to take in our community. It is really been because I have been led by the data, the evidence, the science, and you know, ultimately recognizing the unique context that Peel has faced. We are Canada’s distribution hub, we are the second most populous region in the country,” said Dr. Loh.

He was also at the forefront of calling for paid sick leave for workers, which eventually was announced by Ontario after months of pressure. When asked if he thinks things would have been different if it had come earlier, Dr. Loh said, “I don’t presume to understand decisions timelines of decisions ultimately, I speak for what’s needed and what’s right for our community when we do see it.”

“When something spreads from person to person, it will no doubt find very fertile ground where there are lots of people and where you’re internationally connected, and where you also have lots of people where disparities actually limit the opportunity for those people to stay home, certainly the essential worker populations that we saw there,” said Dr. Loh.

He adds none of the decisions he made to protect the community, like shuttering businesses, were never made lightly always made in consultation with the community and Peel Region council.

“I think the biggest thing that I would share with all the decisions that were made is they ultimately were what needed to be done because of the reality of this pandemic,” said Dr. Loh.

“The reality of what we’ve seen in different responses around the world is you can either take measures, take steps to save lives and protect your hospital and health care system for everyone to access and it will be a difficult time. But if you do nothing, I think we’ve seen in other countries where this is spun out of control, it will also be a really, really difficult time as well with lots of the same issues and challenges arising.”

Peel faced a difficult third wave before COVID-19 vaccines began to push the community out of the darkness and Dr. Loh and Peel Region mayors were instrumental in convincing the province to flood the hotspots with vaccines.

The area now boasts a vaccine rate of over 90 per cent for those 12 years of age and up, Dr. Loh calls it a “real success story.”

“We did have to work and fight tooth and nail with hospital partners, health care partners, hospital partners to get out there and build that trust to get people to come out and reach that milestone,” said Dr. Loh.

They are now working to provide boosters for their residents with over 156,000 doses administered as of Dec. 24.

He credits the group of people he works with for much of the success in the region, remaining humble, “I’ve always been asked about my leadership approach and I say make sure the room is filled with people that are smarter than you are.”

“I have the privilege of working with an amazing team here at Peel Public Health and Region of Peel … But I think the reality is that I trusted science, I trusted my team. I certainly had the support of our council, our community and we all really came together.”

Like the rest of Canada, Peel is once again seeing a surge in cases with the emergence of the Omicron variant. But Dr. Loh said despite Omicron, there are lots to be hopeful about.

“We’ve got vaccines, we’ve got therapeutics that are now also coming in, the antivirals that are being produced. We have a population that has trusted the science it has, through our collective efforts really turned the tide.”

He predicts COVID-19 will likely just become part of the cold and flu season over a number of years.

“What will likely happen in my estimation is provided we get to this hump that Omicron is throwing at us, the curveball, but I think spring, summer and fall will definitely start to resemble something a little more normal. And then presumably by winter next year, it may be boosters, masks again at least for one or two more years. And then beyond that.”