Ed. note: Simcoe Muskoka is being moved to the Grey-Lockdown zone in Ontario’s COVID-19 response framework effective Mar. 1, 2021, which includes the following measures:
- Indoor social gatherings: prohibited except for members of the same household; may include one other person who lives alone.
- Outdoor gatherings: maximum of 10 people, provided physical distancing can be maintained.
- Restaurants: Take out, drive-through, and delivery only. No indoor or patio service.
- Retail: Grocery stores and pharmacies can operate at 50 per cent capacity; all other retail can operate at 25 per cent capacity, including discount and big box retailers, liquor stores, hardware stores, and garden centres.
- Personal care services: closed
- Indoor sports and rec: closed with exceptions for high-performance athletes, day camps, and childcare.
- Outdoor amenities: open (including ice rinks, ski hills, snow trails) with restrictions.
- See the full list of restrictions here.
A message from the Ontario government: Ontario activates emergency brake in Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
The Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, is moving nine public health regions to new levels in the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework (the “Framework”). This includes activating an “emergency brake” in Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit to move the regions to Grey-Lockdown to immediately interrupt transmission and contain community spread. Decisions were made in consultation with the local medical officers of health and are based on the trends in public health indicators and local context and conditions.
“While we continue to see the number of cases and other public health indicators lowering in many regions across the province, the recent modelling shows us that we must be nimble and put in place additional measures to protect Ontarians and stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “With COVID-19 variants continuing to spread in our communities, it is critically important that everyone continues strictly adhering to all public health and workplace safety measures to help contain the virus and maintain the progress we have made to date.”
Based on the latest data, the following public health regions will move from their current level in the Framework to the following levels effective Monday, March 1, 2021 at 12:01 a.m.:
Grey-Lockdown
- Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit; and
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit
Red-Control
- Niagara Region Public Health
Orange-Restrict
- Chatham-Kent Public Health;
- Middlesex-London Health Unit; and
- Southwestern Public Health.
Yellow-Protect
- Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit; and
- Huron Perth Public Health.
Green-Prevent
- Grey Bruce Health Unit.
Based on the latest assessment of data the “emergency brake” is being used to place Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit into Grey-Lockdown, helping to stop the spread of the virus and protect public health and health system capacity in the regions. This is due to a rapid worsening in key public health indicators, as well as a high presence of variants in the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit that continue to increase—the highest in the province. As of February 23, 2021, there has been a total of 170 confirmed cases of a variant of concern in this region.
In Peel Public Health, Toronto Public Health, and North Bay Parry Sound District, the Shutdown measures and the Stay-at-Home order will continue to apply until at least Monday, March 8, 2021, with final decisions to be based on key public health indicators and consultation with the local medical officers of health. All other public health regions will remain at their current level. Please visit Ontario.ca/covidresponse for the full list of public health region classifications.
Based on the latest modelling data, the efforts of Ontarians in following public health measures and advice are working to decrease the number of new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations across the province. However, with variants of concern continuing to spread, the number of patients requiring hospitalization and intensive care may rise once again if public health measures are not relaxed carefully and gradually. The actions of everyone over the coming weeks will be critical to maintaining the progress communities have made across the province to date.
“Quickly implementing stronger measures to interrupt transmission of COVID-19 is a key component of the government’s plan to safely and gradually return public health regions to the Framework,” said Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health. “Due to data and local context and conditions in the Simcoe Muskoka and Thunder Bay Districts, it was necessary to tighten public health measures in these regions to ensure the health and safety of the region at large and stop the spread of the virus.”
The Chief Medical Officer of Health will continue to consult with public health and other experts, review data, and provide advice to the government on the appropriate and effective measures that are needed to protect the health of Ontarians.
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Dr. Robert Cushman, Regional Medical Officer of Health for Renfrew County, has suggested that he would introduce greater restrictions for one identified area of the county due to a “spreader” event that has resulted in an increase of cases.
How interesting that a Dr. Cushman openly laments that the entire County of Renfrew should NOT be subjected to greater restrictions as a result of this “spreader” event / incident.
Perhaps Dr. Gardner could call Dr. Cushman on Monday morning, and get some guidance on this approach.
Then he could apply logic and reason and do the right thing for Muskoka !
Transparency sure would make waiting easier.
Why can we not see a daily list somewhere of how many vaccine doses were administered and where?
Why not a daily list of vaccines received, what type and again, where?
Vaccination is the only way to get back to any form of normality and the citizens are the ones who will live of die based on these vaccines so it seems obvious that this information will not only help pinpoint areas of concern, but help people to endure the necessary waiting times.
I have no idea exactly how this “roll out” is to proceed. Do I, for example, need to take any action or is the government going to “look after me” somehow with no input from me?
Clear and trusted information is the only way to prevent rumor and conspiracy theorists from muddying up the whole situation to the detriment of all of us.
I’d rather have a clear daily statement of plans and progress on the media than a bunch of time filling, interviews with “maybe” experts who give their opinions which may or may not be very correct.
The last thing we want is to end up like the USA Republicans who still think the whole thing is a hoax and that Trump won and this is purely because their media messed up so badly nobody has any idea what the truth is anymore down there.
Totally agree with Will Moore and Ray Vowels! Thank you for speaking up.
Yep way to go blame the people of Muskoka for traveling out of our area but still let a few thousand come here every weekend to go skiing or snowmobiling or just shopping and that is just fine . But we are paying the price. Just quit with the B.S and lock the hwy down at Barrie and see just how fast our number drop to zero. I guess that might take someone with power thinking just a tiny bit.
Thanks to our mayor for speaking out on the ludicrous use of power killing our local businesses. There is no credible reason, other than politics, to put Muskoka into lock down at this time. We are being punished by Dr. Gardner for the situation in the ‘South’ with no regard to the damage to our Northern economy. We should not be tarred with the same brush as the cities below our region. We need to remain vigilant, wear masks, and socially distant ourselves from others. As I travel as I need to around town, I see most people are doing this!
Does no one realize that alot of the employees of macdonalds here come from Barrie. Im all for the lockdown i value peoples lives before any businesses.
I think this is the right move. It is very inconvenient for me. But I accept it for the sake of the common good.
I’m concerned for the local small business operators. Entrepreneurs that have invested locally, created jobs and given years of their time and efforts to meet the needs of local Huntsville people.
Lately I have heard comments re several local business’s who are getting close to shutting down due to financial strains caused by how our leaders have addressed the shutdowns for Muskoka.
I’m more concerned for the long term effects on our local economy than I am anything else.
MB
We need to get rid of Dr. Gardner and replace him with someone reasonable. The per capita cases in Muskoka are statistically low but we still pay for the ‘South’. Politics and Power mongers are killing our local businesses. Thanks to our Mayor for speaking out in defense of local businesses.
I tend to agree with Will Moore and I know there is the unknown with the various variants that we have to be mindful of but for the most part throughout this whole pandemic the people of Muskoka have behaved, followed the guidelines and as a result except for a few spikes our cases have been kept low as have our hospitalizations. There is the call to split the health unit away from Simcoe, which is a debate for another time because for now we have to live with the structure that is in place.
Doppler has another article on the vaccine rollout for our area which I read. I agree with the comments about vaccinating seasonal residents, it’s kind of like some snowbirds getting vaccinated in Florida because they have a property there. How about you wait in line and get vaccinated where you live. I won’t get into the weeds about the actual vaccination procurement from our federal government, yes we are behind other countries and to use an expression that I hate, ” it is what it is ” We knew that eventually there would be a vaccine or vaccines. It seems like it was easier to develop them than to actually do a rollout. How many months has the Ontario government known about it. It seems that weekly Gen Hillier rolls out a new flow chart showing the timeline and it changes every time. They can’t even get an online booking site rolled out on time. I agree that the local health units have the knowledge of their region but should there not be a set standard. York region for example is starting I believe on Monday vaccinating people 80+ yet Muskoka is starting at 85. The one constant caveat that every politician and MOH uses is the vaccine supply. With the approval yesterday of AstraZeneca and possibly the vaccine from Johnson and Johnson within weeks we could have 4 vaccines available. I read somewhere that Dr. Gardner would not say how many vaccines would be allocated to our health unit for security reasons. What is the big secrete not to let residents know the number. Without transparency the question begs to be answered are we being penalized for having lower case numbers, what’s wrong with breaking down the vaccinations given on the previous day on their website between Simcoe and Muskoka. I get that the plan is still being fine tuned and hopefully not on a napkin at Tim Horton’s, sorry no inside dining but one suggestion when vaccines get ramped up run the sites 24/7 or at the very least 16 hours a day seven days a week. In my work career I knew what it was like to work off hours and weekends. Everyone likes to work 9 to 5 but the sooner we get everyone vaccinated that wants it the sooner we can get back to some kind of normalcy. Hopefully Dr. Gardner and his team will start being a little more transparent with the residents of Muskoka and step up their game a little more and get this done.
Case counts remain higher in Simcoe, but the spread of a more transmissible COVID-19 variant from Simcoe to Muskoka remains a cause of concern for public health officials. At least nine variant cases were detected in Muskoka in the past week, up from one the week before.
This is of concern Muskoka people are traveling to other places??? these numbers are permanent residents of Muskoka. Thankfully we are starting vaccinations in Muskoka this week It is a help but it does not mean we can return to a wide open society. After vaccination you must still wear a mask and physically distance until everyone you associate with is 2 weeks past their second dose. Think about this – Your family may not have the vaccine until next year. .
They won’t stop people from coming up here. That’s means politicians like Doug Ford can’t visit his cottage in Port Sydney. Hotel parking lots have been packed on weekends in Muskoka.
This is just plain crazy go to red then back to grey . Are they deliberately trying to put every business in Muskoka out of business or just trying to drive them crazy. If they are going to lock things down here then stop all the people coming up here from the south and shut the international air traffic from landing in Canada . Seems to me they are just playing at doing much of anything and trying to make it look like they care when they don’t give a darn about anyone but them selves. They sure are not giving up there income for a few months you can bet on that.
The Health Unit reported 275 cases last week with the majority being in Barrie and South Simcoe.
This week the Health Unit reported 169. Again, the majority are in Barrie and south Simcoe.
Dr. Gardner advises the media earlier this week that he expected to call for a lockdown because the numbers were trending upwards.
The actual numbers trended down by a significant amount (106 cases lower). However, Dr. Gardner has put Muskoka into lockdown again because of Barrie and south Simcoe numbers.
People are fed up with this foolishness.
What is the specific plan for Muskoka ? What is the Regional Medical Officer of Health using as a benchmark in order to say to the citizens of Muskoka that he is doing a “good job “ and meeting his plan for Muskoka’s specific benchmarks ?
It seems that we are at the whims of an unaccountable bureaucrat who chooses to lock everyone up.
I am afraid that Dr. Gardner has lost public confidence.