Dr. Kit Young Hoon. Supplied by NWHU
The Northwestern Health Unit is once again forced to remind people to abide by stay-at-home orders.
This follows so-called “Freedom Rallies” in various communities including Dryden, Red Lake and Fort Frances, where a large percent of participants weren’t wearing masks.
Dr. Kit Young Hoon stresses, “We want to reach a point where these restrictions are no longer applied. We do need to demonstrate that case numbers are definitely coming down. So, at this point the numbers aren’t strongly indicating a decline.”
The region currently sits with 70 active cases, four more than all of Thunder Bay. (As of Tuesday, April 28)
Dr. Young Hoon notes the restrictions are legal and required.
Refusal to comply with the current orders can lead to a $750 fine for a resident, $1,000 for corporations, and $1,000 for anyone that prevents an enforcement officer from performing their duties to enforce the orders.
Dr. Young Hoon says going out in public only leads to the spread of the virus which is very problematic.
The Northwestern Health Unit is also adding details of variants of concern in its public reporting.
Since January there have been 44 such cases, including a record high 23 in the Dryden area.
Kenora is next at 13 cases, followed by Sioux Lookout at 4, Fort Frances 3 and Red Lake 1.
Dr. Kit Young Hoon says they will now be updating their variant numbers.
“It is important that we do a weekly summary to at least get a sense of trends on what’s happening. I think if it’s a variant of concern in a new area, like for example the Rainy River district where we have not seen variants of concern as of yet, then we would publicize it immediately, so people are aware.”
So far, it’s been the UK variant that’s been the most common in our region.
Meantime, two COVID-19 outbreaks declared in the Rainy River District have now been declared over.
The Northwestern Health Unit says a surge in cases from an outdoor church service in Emo and the Sturgeon Creek Alternative Program school are no longer concerns.
Two workplace outbreaks, New Gold Rainy River Mine and Munn and Yates in Fort Frances, are still being monitored.
(With Files From Randy Thoms: Fort Frances and Stuart Walter: Kenora)
