Today, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) reported another two new COVID-19 cases in Huntsville: an 80+ year-old woman whose infection is under investigation, and a 65-79 year-old female whose infection was community acquired.
There have now been twelve COVID-19 cases reported for Huntsville this month, eight of them in the past week.
Of the 66 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Huntsville to date, 10 are active and one is in hospital in Huntsville. Two people have died from the disease in Huntsville, as well as a third person in Muskoka Lakes.
There have been 23 COVID-19 cases in Huntsville since Jan. 1. Almost 60 per cent of Huntsville’s cases to date (38) have occurred in the past three months of the pandemic. In Lake of Bays, there have been six cases in total, all of which are resolved.
There have been a total of 213 cases reported in Muskoka to date (24 of them currently active) and 6,082 in Simcoe County (580 active). (For a full list of Huntsville and Lake of Bays cases to date, and other COVID-19 updates for the area, visit our COVID-19 page.)
Simcoe Muskoka entered the province’s Red-Control zone last Tuesday.
For more COVID-19 information from the health unit, visit simcoemuskokahealth.org.
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Terri Howell says
There is currently an outbreak of Covid-19 amongst staff members at McDonalds on King William Street in Huntsville. There are conflicting messages as to the total number of infected employees however, the virus has now spread to other family members. The health unit has not reported all of the positive cases as Huntsville cases, likely because some of the individuals live elsewhere in the region. They report one case that tested positive on February 15th. There have also been positive cases at the McDonalds in Bracebridge (February 15, February 20) Gravenhurst and Parry Sound (February 22).
It is my understanding that employees have been sent up to Huntsville and other local McDonalds locations from the Barrie area. It seems wrong to send people from an area that is considered a “hot zone” during a lockdown. I understand that it is difficult to find employees, but this seems to be an unsafe practice during a pandemic.
McDonalds has an app, which I have investigated. McDonalds claims that their top priority is to protect the health and well being of their people and guests. It is the core of everything that they do. They promise to operate in line with guidance from public health authorities and all levels of government. They are committed to the safety of the communities that they serve in order to meet the needs of the many Canadians that rely on them for food and beverage. McDonalds has existing high standards of cleanliness in their restaurants and they continue to demonstrate their safety and commitment, which includes enhanced safety measures to ensure that the McDonalds experience is safe. (McDonalds.ca)
McDonalds regularly updates their app when they have an outbreak of Covid-19 in their restaurants. Such an outbreak results in a restaurant closure for cleaning and sanitization by a third party company. The app lists the positive employee cases for each province for 14 days. They do not release personal information in order to protect privacy.
These are reassuring words for patrons of their restaurants, but it seems like they are just that, only words that are not necessarily being put into actions for the protection of citizens who have supported these restaurants well over the years.
Here are my questions:
Why, during a pandemic, would McDonalds transport employees from Barrie, which is a “hot zone” for the variant into smaller communities to the north?
Did McDonalds immediately report all positive cases to the health unit?
Did the health unit or McDonalds do contact tracing of people who entered the restaurant to pick up, take out or who worked when the first case was positive on February 11?
Did McDonalds car pool employees from southern Simcoe region to work in Gravenhurst, Parry Sound, Bracebridge and Huntsville?
Do those McDonalds employees who have been travelling north to work live communally or do they live separately?
If McDonalds promises to remain transparent by informing the public of outbreaks, why have not done this? The updates on the app, as of February 23rd, are not current or complete.
Did McDonalds close down the restaurants where there were positive test results and hire a third party to clean before re-opening?
When a positive case was identified, did McDonalds insist that all staff members get tested before returning to work with a negative test result?
In the case of the positive tests for McDonalds employees, who was responsible for contact tracing? Was it the sick individual?
It appears to this citizen as though there has not been transperancy and this is the case in order to protect the restaurant. Even if there were no public health rules broken ( and I believe there were) there is a moral and ethical obligation for a food and beverage operator to step forward, admit there are Covid cases and show the public a willingness to deep clean and contact trace.
Meanwhile, small businesses in town have been fined $1000 for a less serious offence.
Questions for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
Have all of the positive cases been reported to the public?
Are the positive cases in Bracebridge and Gravenhurst related to the McDonalds in Huntsville? Do some employees work at both locations?
Why is the health unit asking establishments to do contact tracing if the establishments are not required to contact people if there has been a positive test?
These questions are being asked in order to raise awareness of the issues. The slow rollout of the vaccine, the lack of contact tracing and the lack of transparency are serious problems.
Terri Howell