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The virus is far from whipped, but the London area is marking an encouraging milestone, the first day in seven weeks with no deaths and no new cases of COVID-19.

It’s good news, but a day of “zeroes” doesn’t signify the end of the pandemic, experts say.

“Obviously there has been a declining trend. This is very good news but we need to be cautious in terms of saying the virus is not any longer in our community. That would be a hard statement to make at this stage,” said Dr. Saverio Stranges, the chair of epidemiology and biostatistics at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

“This is excellent news, but I will encourage (everyone) to wait for a few additional days to see whether this a consistent trend or maybe just a random fact as far as today.”

London’s double-goose-eggs – 0 deaths, 0 new cases as of Friday at 10 p.m. – comes as Ontario announces 346 new confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses, the lowest 24-hour increase in more than a month, despite a record 19,000 tests. Another 59 people in Ontario have died from the virus in that one-day period.

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Premier Doug Ford also announced on Saturday that provincial parks and conservation authorities would open for day-use starting Monday.

It’s the first day since March 21 – seven weeks exactly – that tests haven’t revealed any new COVID-19 infections in London or Middlesex County in a full day. London had had 12 total cases of the coronavirus at that point. (It has had 438 as of right now.)

A Western student who had returned from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the virus, fell ill with COVID-19 in late January and was London’s first case.

“This is a day that we’ve been waiting for for some time. I didn’t think we would get the two zeroes in the same day,” Dr. Chris Mackie, the region’s top public health official, said on Saturday.

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“It’s very clear that we’re not through this. We will have more cases that are reported in the next weeks, but it’s a very good sign that things are starting to normalize,” he added.

There have been a total of 438 confirmed COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County, and 43 people have died. Retirement and long-term care homes make up 136 of the 146 COVID-19 infections that are still active.

As of late Friday, there were a total of 10 people in hospital in London with the virus, and four of them were in intensive care.

Mackie and Stranges said the role Londoners have played in flattening the curve by staying home, keeping apart from other people, and practicing good hygiene is crucial.

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“I’m encouraged by what I see in our communities. It’s Saturday, I just did my grocery run, and people are being very careful,” Mackie said, citing lots of face masks, “courteous interactions” and shoppers giving one another lots of personal space.

Mackie pointed to countries with more relaxed public health measures that have been met with higher death tolls and case counts.

“It’s not hard to figure out what would have happened if we as a whole community and society had not put in these efforts,” he said.

“I’m still seeing – at least from my perspective – that people continue to take this seriously, and that’s what will need to happen.”

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There’s “no reason” to think there won’t be a second wave of COVID-19 in the late fall or early winter, Mackie said, noting the virus is seasonal, like the flu.

New skills, such as learning how to be physically distanced from others while out and about, or embracing curbside pickup for shopping, will continue to be important, he added.

Western’s Saverio, a native Italian who also has family in the United States, said the relatively consistent response from politicians and public health officials has helped Canada flatten the curve and avoid some of the devastation of COVID-19, compared to his home country and others hit hard.

“Canada has been hit by the epidemic a bit later than western European countries. Definitely Canada has been much more reactive,” he said, urging people to keep up the same tactics in the coming weeks.

“We need to buy time and keep up our Canadian approach. We have been extremely cautious, extremely serious in putting health and safety first – I really appreciate that.”

mstacey@postmedia.com

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