Many residents and business owners are taking to social media creating an online petition to demand the lockdown be lifted and have Muskoka separated from Simcoe Country for a re-opening regional approach. There is no date of when the third lockdown for the region could be lifted.
The Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, is moving nine public health regions to new levels in the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework (the “Framework”). This includes activating an “emergency brake” in Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit to move the regions to Grey-Lockdown to immediately interrupt transmission and contain community spread. Decisions were made in consultation with the local medical officers of health and are based on the trends in public health indicators and local context and conditions.
The Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit is one of the regions with the most COVID-19 variants in the province.
“While we continue to see the number of cases and other public health indicators lowering in many regions across the province, the recent modelling shows us that we must be nimble and put in place additional measures to protect Ontarians and stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “With COVID-19 variants continuing to spread in our communities, it is critically important that everyone continues strictly adhering to all public health and workplace safety measures to help contain the virus and maintain the progress we have made to date.”
Based on the latest data, the following public health regions will move from their current level in the Framework to the following levels effective Monday, March 1, 2021 at 12:01 a.m.
Grey-Lockdown
- Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
- Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
Red-Control
- Niagara Region Public Health.
Orange-Restrict
- Chatham-Kent Public Health;
- Middlesex-London Health Unit; and
- Southwestern Public Health.
Yellow-Protect
- Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit; and
- Huron Perth Public Health.
Green-Prevent
- Grey Bruce Health Unit.
Based on the latest assessment of data the “emergency brake” is being used to place Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit into Grey-Lockdown, helping to stop the spread of the virus and protect public health and health system capacity in the regions. This is due to a rapid worsening in key public health indicators, as well as a high presence of variants in the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit that continue to increase – the highest in the province. As of February 23, 2021, there has been a total of 170 confirmed cases of a variant of concern in this region.
In Peel Public Health, Toronto Public Health, and North Bay Parry Sound District, the Shutdown measures and the Stay-at-Home order will continue to apply until at least Monday, March 8, 2021, with final decisions to be based on key public health indicators and consultation with the local medical officers of health. All other public health regions will remain at their current level. Please visit Ontario.ca/covidresponse for the full list of public health region classifications.
Based on the latest modelling data, the efforts of Ontarians in following public health measures and advice are working to decrease the number of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations across the province. However, with variants of concern continuing to spread, the number of patients requiring hospitalization and intensive care may rise once again if public health measures are not relaxed carefully and gradually. The actions of everyone over the coming weeks will be critical to maintaining the progress communities have made across the province to date.
“Quickly implementing stronger measures to interrupt transmission of COVID-19 is a key component of the government’s plan to safely and gradually return public health regions to the Framework,” said Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health. “Due to data and local context and conditions in the Simcoe-Muskoka and Thunder Bay Districts, it was necessary to tighten public health measures in these regions to ensure the health and safety of the region at large and stop the spread of the virus.”
The Chief Medical Officer of Health will continue to consult with public health and other experts, review data, and provide advice to the government on the appropriate and effective measures that are needed to protect the health of Ontarians.
When will people realize how deadly and contagious Covid 19 and the variant is!!!!
Wake up!!! Many cancer patients can’t get life saving surgery because hospitals are full of Covid patients.
There are long outstanding complications from these diseases!!! If you are walking down a street in town and the person before you had Covid and you walk through that same space you might get Covid. If Barrie or York or Toronto residents are in your community with Covid you are sitting ducks for horrible infection. If we don’t lock down the area then visitors can infect you and your family!
Wake up Simcoe County!!!
This is not a plot to take away your rights, it is designed to protect your rights and lives!!!
so, where is the petition?
I’m a resident, but I’m not furious. The decision to go into lockdown was made on the advice of medical professionals. It’s their expertise that is keeping us safe. Lives before profit.
Tough call. It’s so easy to be furious until you or someone close to you gets sick
It has to be frustrating for local business for sure. What I don’t understand is why did they let people out of other countries once the new variants showed up. It would have been much easier to pool resources to one country to help with the variant then have people spread it all over the world. But it did take the government one year to partially close airports.
The new grey lockdown rules aren’t the same as the old ones. Most stores can stay open at limited capacity but hairdressers are closed and restaurants are takeout only like before.
Make the Gov’t and so called health offials look stupid. Should have been in lockdown off the bat. Raise false hope is worse.
I want to know why Blue Mountains..which i believe are all in Grey Bruce which is where everyone from there will come to Collingwood to shop is not in lockdown. Seems a little suspicious to me that the private clubs and of course Blue Mountain Might have had some kind of backroom discussion to keep them open…….
The number of vehicles towing snowmobiles into our towns onThursday/Friday is utterly ridiculous ! Just watch the traffic on highway 117 come in, then go out on Sunday. Our hotel parking lots are filled to capacity ! Our parks are at a 100% increase in bookings from last year from January to today ! We are not in a “grey” zone, we are in a “tourist” zone, open for business/travel, come have fun – and don’t forget to bring the “Covid” ! Why can’t we stop the influx? Why not let Muskoka residents live in the safe environment that it actually is ? Were local, we will go out and shop local, we will go out and support local businesses, why – because they are our friends, neighbours and family ! But we can’t, because we have to be locked down in our homes while “others” get to come up and play. What the heck is going on here ?? Where are those politicians that “grew up in Muskoka and are best suited because they know the environment”. Shut us down, not from ourselves but from where the problem lies.