With news today that the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is going back into the red zone as of Monday, small businesses and the people supporting them are happy, but also still pushing for change.
According to the province's announcement on Friday, the decision to move Simcoe-Muskoka from grey to red after just one week was made in consultation with area medical officers of health.
Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for Simcoe-Muskoka, issued an open letter today about the zone change.
"The return to red-control on March 8, as well as the move to grey-lockdown one week ago, are in keeping with recommendations that I provided to the chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams," Gardner said. "My recommendation of a return to red-control is based on information that our overall incidence of COVID-19 has remained stable over the past two weeks despite the rise in the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant."
Gardner has previously said the presence of the UK variant in the region was among his chief concerns.
"It is important to remember that with large numbers of the B.1.1.7 variant cases in Simcoe-Muskoka, and with the rise in variants of concern throughout the province, we may see an increase in the incidence of COVID-19 in the weeks to come, and the potential need for further protective measures in the future," he added regarding a potential third wave.
Local businessman Emil Kamel has been very vocal about the move to grey earlier this week. The owner of North Swing Golf Lounge has been posting his analysis of the case numbers on social media for nearly a week.
Kamel told BarrieToday he believes this reversal back to red shows how important it is for people to speak up.
“I relied on the same numbers that are available on the health unit’s website, so it shows that all that is needed is to really take a look at what is already there,” said Kamel. “But this was a collection of people who continued to fight for their thoughts and feelings to be heard.
"Businesses were being unnecessarily closed and decided they weren’t going to sit by and be forced out of operating," he added.
A petition started by Kamel a week ago has more than 23,600 signatures in support of reversing the lockdown order, which had come into effect March 1. Kamel said he believes the reason the message worked — where it may not have in other situations — was the delivery of the message.
“I feel we did this the right way. We are not claiming the virus is a hoax or that you shouldn’t take precautions. It is real and we need to be careful,” said Kamel. “Our point is, and continues to be, the numbers don’t show we need to be in the grey. We are happy with a modified red, but to be honest, there are times we are in the orange (based on the case counts) in this region.”
Barrie Chamber of Commerce executive director Paul Markle was very happy with the news today and said he hopes everyone understands what this doesn’t mean.
"We’re ecstatic and are very happy for the businesses in the community who can get back to work,” Markle said. “But we’re not done yet, as we need to ensure this doesn’t happen again when it isn’t warranted. There needs to be changes to the framework and how it is applied.”
The chamber shared a letter from Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin on its Facebook page. In it, she said she will continue to try to have the Ministry of Health make amendments to the provincial framework to include vaccine rollout numbers.
“Currently, I am working to get the Ministry of Health and the Health Table to include the number of vaccines issued into the framework, which will be a better reflection of how the community is protecting those at risk from the virus,” Khanjin said in the statement.
County of Simcoe Warden George Cornell also released a statement today, calling the red-zone designation “welcome news.”
“I would like to thank the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Dr. Charles Gardner, our MPPs and the province for taking the collective input of our regional partners into consideration,” said Cornell. “This responsible decision supports the well-being of our residents and the livelihoods of so many of our small business owners and their employees.”
A lockdown protest that was set for Saturday, March 6 at Meridian Place will still be taking place at 11 a.m. in hopes of showing support of changing the way lockdowns are applied.
Simcoe-Muskoka moves back into the red-control zone effective Monday, March 8 at 12:01 a.m.
