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Mayor’s Message on COVID-19 – June 9, 2020

Mayor’s Message on COVID-19 – June 9, 2020

Hello everyone, week 12 for my messages.

A lot has happened within Ontario in the last week. The up and down numbers from primarily southcentral Ontario dipped to 243 yesterday, the lowest number in more than two months.

In Ontario we now have 31,103 cases, 24,492 people have recovered, and unfortunately 2,450 deaths.

Worldwide, yesterday saw 136,000 new cases, the worst single day since the outbreak started. Not a comforting statistic.

Yesterday our provincial government announced Stage 2 of reopening the province will begin this Friday for 24 different Public Health Units where new COVID-19 cases are low or absent. Effective June 12, 2020, the province will increase social gatherings from 5 to 10 people across the province (two metres physical distance must still be maintained between people not of the same household). All places of worship in Ontario will be permitted to open with physical distancing in place and attendance limited to no more than 30% of the building capacity. Outdoor dine-in services at restaurants, bars and other establishments will be permitted in those 24 health units, as will select personal care services including barber shops, hair salons and beauty salons. Shopping malls, tour and guide services, museums, water recreational facilities, beaches, camping at Ontario Parks and private campgrounds are all included in Stage 2. Child care centres will be gradually reopening with strict public health measures in place including limited operational capacity. The province continues to promote working remotely wherever possible. All of these activities have accompanying guidelines on how to operate safely. Guidance documents for reopening may be sourced at www.ontario.ca/covidsafety.

Our public beaches are now open and we are working towards a partial reopening of some of our trails and the viewing platform at the top of Bridal Veil Falls, hopefully by this coming weekend. This graduated reopening is meant to be just that – gradual. It will be the new way of conducting business for some time to come.

Everyone needs to continue to do their part every day to minimize the risk of infecting people or becoming infected, do not become complacent.

Thank you,

Ian