Chatham-Kent is taking a wait and see approach when it comes to newly announced easing of COVID restrictions across Ontario.
Speaking during the non-agenda business portion of Monday night’s council meeting, General Manager of Health and Family Services, Dr. April Rietdyk said they’re waiting for more specific details from the provincial government.
“We always wait for the actual law to come out,” Rietdyk says. “So once that does come out, we will review it. We will look at it both from a public health perspective, Dr Colby will review it, we will look at it as an administrative team and make the best decisions for our community that we can make.”
Among the changes announced by the Ford government on Monday: capacity limits on places that require proof of vaccination will be lifted and social gathering limits will be increased to 25 people indoors and 100 outdoors as of this Thursday.
Proof of vaccination requirements will be lifted starting March 1st, although Premier Doug Ford said masking will remain in effect for a little while longer.
Chatham-Kent Council agreed back in November, 2021 that the municipal mask bylaw would expire once the provincial mandate was ended.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kieran Moore said metrics across the board, including COVID hospitalizations, are improving.
“We have the level of protection that we need to remove public health measures and have made terrific strides on reducing the risk, our health system is in a much better position now,” Dr. Moore said. “Our decisions have been data driven, our numbers show how Ontarians’ sacrifices have limited the spread of this virus, our vaccination numbers speak for themselves.”
As of Monday’s report from the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, there are 15 COVID patients in hospital, just six of whom are being treated primarily for the virus. Three of the COVID patients are in CKHA’s intensive care unit, with one in the progressive care unit.
