Several top local officials are urging caution about being too lax and going out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, the delayed school March Break in April, and Easter this year.
Chatham-Kent Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby said it's not the time to do it. Colby said people should think twice about indoor gatherings because there's still a global pandemic.
"This is not the year to celebrate [St. Paddy's] in the traditional boisterous fashion. I love a fun time as much as any person but this is not the time," said Colby. "When we get everybody vaccinated there's no doubt that a lot of these restrictions that we have been living with for so long will no longer be necessary but until we get to that point, they are very necessary."
Colby said the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Chatham-Kent can be traced back to indoor gatherings. The number of local active cases has spiked from six two weeks ago to 61 on Friday. Chatham-Kent remains in the Orange-Restrict level of the provincial health and safety measures and restrictions. However, the province announced on Friday afternoon that Sarnia-Lambton will move to the Grey-Lockdown level on March 15. Windsor-Essex stayed at the Red-Control level and the London area stayed at Orange-Restrict.
"We all want our economy to do well and we all want our businesses to do well but not on the backs of people getting sick," he said.
Mayor Darrin Canniff expressed his concern if a third wave of the virus hits. He said a majority of businesses have adapted their models to operate during the pandemic and are doing reasonably well but he is very worried about closures during a possible third wave.
"I've talked to a lot of businesses and they said 'OK we went through one [lockdown] and we just went through a second.' It's certainly going to negatively impact businesses in the third shutdown. I'm very hopeful we can avoid that," said the mayor.
Canniff also said residents can't take the COVID-19 vaccine for granted because we're still two or three months away from getting the majority of Chatham-Kent vaccinated to protect the community. The municipality's Chief Administration Officer Don Shropshire said business closures are also a big concern for him, adding we can control a third wave if we just follow public health and safety measures.
"We are the authors of our own future," he said.
Shropshire also said there has been a huge migration of hundreds local businesses switching to online operations and benefiting from a new crop of customers.
Meantime, both the Catholic and public school boards are asking parents and students to make good choices about what they do in the coming weeks and months as COVID-19 fatigue sets in and temperatures start to get warmer. The Director of Education of the Lambton-Kent District School Board John Howitt said student cases have increased lately and he's afraid personal restrictions will start to loosen up for many. He's begging parents and guardians to really ponder if a gathering is really worth infecting hundreds of other families.
"I'm worried about that COVID-19 fatigue is hitting a point where those in the community are coming to points where they're not willing to say no to their children around participation in events, gatherings or activities," said Howitt. "I think it's really important that we recognize the light at the end of tunnel but understand that there's distance in the tunnel before you get to that light."
Howitt credits the tracing work done by Chatham-Kent Public Health for not allowing classes to be disrupted and students sent home.
Dr. Colby said the virus is coming into the schools from the community because some people are not following proper public health and safety recommendations. He added the virus is not being spread from student to student.
Director of Education of the St. Clair Catholic District School Board Deb Crawford said people have adapted and schools are still joyful places of learning but is asking people to hang on a bit longer and keep making sensible decisions.
"Students are resilient. There's a very strong sense that we're going to get through this. It feels like we are on the cusp of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel," said Crawford.
Colby said there are disturbing trends across the province that point to a possible third wave and he hopes enough people get vaccinated in time to prevent it.
