Mayor’s Message on COVID-19 – September 8, 2020
Hello everyone, week 25 for my messages.
Back to school today in six provinces and the news has been dominated by the mixed feelings of parents, teachers and students. It is widely agreed that there will be cases of COVID-19 appear at schools, the big question is whether these can be contained and isolated to prevent further spread. The next month or so will certainly be a test to see if the existing protocols are sufficient to keep this virus in check.
Yesterday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Official Dr. Theresa Tam reported that daily cases of COVID-19 rose 25% in Canada in the last week. 3,955 people tested positive and 28 people died in the last seven days. As of yesterday, 131,895 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 9,145 people have died in Canada.
Around the world the news is not very encouraging as many European countries are seeing a rise in infections as they re-open for business. Some of this increase can be attributed to increased testing. The United Kingdom recently saw their biggest single day bump of COVID-19 cases since May and India set a new single day record.
The take-home message is simple, this virus is here to stay for a long time yet. It will take a sincere effort on everyone’s part to keep the numbers low.
Within our local health unit, the news remains very positive with no new cases reported. This past long weekend saw a huge number of visitors to our township. I cannot remember in my time on Manitoulin seeing more people in our community for the Labour Day weekend. The orderly line-ups at our local businesses with the public following the protocols was great to see and clearly demonstrated that by far, people are getting the message on what to do in the new normal.
I thank them all,
Ian