People have been holed up in their homes now for the better part of a month as health officials stress the need for physical distancing on the battle against the spread of COVID-19.
City of Barrie chief administrative officer (CAO) Michael Prowse updated council members Wednesday evening on the municipality's ongoing response to the global health crisis.
"If there was one takeaway ... I'd like to leave the public with, it's not to be lulled into a false sense of complacency," he said. "The community needs vigilance now probably more than ever. Lowering our guard at this time literally could have fatal implications."
The CAO urged people to maintain physical-distancing measures and follow emergency orders.
"In doing this, we know we can not only flatten the curve, but bust the curve completely," Prowse said.
The city's emergency control group, comprised of the senior management team, was activated March 13 to oversee the health crisis. A state of emergency was declared in Barrie on March 23.
Prowse used the analogy of a duck seeming serene and effortless above the water line, but with its legs paddling feverishly below the surface.
"That's what's happening in our community through all the first-responders, through the health-care providers, for your emergency control operations group, through the county, and all of the different social services that are at play," he said. "Now is the critical time."
According to the most recent statistics from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, there are 44 people in Barrie who have been confirmed as having contracted the virus.
Across the Simcoe-Muskoka region, there are 174 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 77 recoveries, 55 self-isolating, 19 isolated at the Bradford Valley long-term care home, 10 hospitalized patients and 12 deaths, including two men in Barrie who were related and who died last month.
"We continue to see evidence of community transmission, that being the spreading of the virus from person to person, and no longer specifically related to travel," Prowse said. "The local cases are increasing and are expected to over the next days and coming weeks."
City officials are also planning ahead for when daily life returns to some sense of normalcy, whenever that may be.
"We need to start planning for when this subsides," Prowse said.
City services such as day camps, for example, require a month or more to ramp up and get going. For camp registration, at this time last year there were more than 6,000 kids signed up. At the moment, however, that number is around 2,500.
"There is no question our residents are taking a wait-and-see approach to camps and that's probaby very sound judgment," said Prowse, adding some reserved positions are also being cancelled.
Prowse also touched on bylaw enforcement around COVID-19. From April 7-13, there were 745 instances, including 512 from routine patrols, 436 of which resulted in no violations being cited. There were 76 infractions, including dogs off leash and children using playground equipment.
Complaints received by the city were related to gatherings (49), use of park equipment (23), businesses being open outside the emergency order (22), and people not respecting physical distancing (15).
"In all of these cases, we received voluntary compliance," Prowse said.
Since March 16, the city has received almost 1,400 inquiries or complaints through the email ([email protected]) and tip line (705-739-4241).
