Windsor-Essex's Acting Medical Officer of Health doesn't appear receptive to bar and restaurant owners who feel they were unfairly targeted in the latest round of public health restrictions.
Starting last Friday, those businesses were only allowed to open at half capacity.
Kingsville town council will debate a resolution Monday night, calling on the health unit to reconsider. Mayor Nelson Santos complained there was little consultation with bar and restaurant owners beforehand. He also pointed out venues like Caesars Windsor and the WFCU Centre can host thousands of spectators at sports events and concerts.
Chatham-Kent has imposed its own public health restrictions aimed at reducing the transmission of COVID-19, but bars and restaurants there are still allowed to open to full capacity.
Doctor Shanker Nesathurai at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit and CEO Nicole Dupuis have repeatedly said they are open to dialogue with those business owners. However, Nesathurai said if the goal is to keep transmission low and schools open, restaurants and bars will have to do their part.
"We know that dining events are high-risk activities for the transmission of COVID-19," said Nesathurai. "We have to balance competing priorities, but the question is always is it more important to have a large group of people to gather at a restaurant, or is it more important for one's child to go to school."
Since the start of the school year in September, Nesathurai said 800 cohorts or 16,000 children have been dismissed from school because of COVID-19 cases.
If anyone is bearing the brunt of the pandemic, Nesathurai would say it is children.
"Thousands of young people are being disrupted from school so they can protect, primarily, a group of people who are unvaccinated and choose not to get vaccinated," he said, taking aim at also the tens of thousands of residents in the region who have not had their shots. "So we're inconveniencing little children, depriving them of school, thousands of them, so we can make sure COVID-19 doesn't make its way into affecting an unvaccinated group of people."
So far, just 77.6 per cent of residents over the age of five have had both doses of the vaccine. Nesathurai has said he would like to see that rate over 90 per cent.
CEO Nicole Dupuis said the health unit's enforcement officers were busy over the weekend and laid several charges, but most were related to mask-wearing.
The health unit reported 263 new cases over the past three days. There were 99 cases on Saturday, 98 on Sunday, and 67 on Monday. A total of 116 people caught the virus from someone who had previously tested positive. Another 67 infections originated in the community. Two cases are related to outbreaks, and one is travel-related. Officials are still investigating how 78 caught the virus.
There are 621 active cases, including 34 people undergoing treatment in the hospital.
Ten schools now report outbreaks. Public health officials added Hugh Beaton Public School to the list on Friday. The other nine are St. John Vianney Catholic Elementary, Stella Maris Catholic Elementary, St. Anne French Immersion Catholic Elementary, Our Lady of Annunciation Catholic Elementary, Margaret D. Bennie Public, Dr. David Suzuki Public, Centennial Central Public, Frank W. Begley Public, and Leamington District Secondary School.
Another 16 workplaces and two long-term care or retirement homes have outbreaks, and there are five in the community.
The province reported 1,536 new cases on Monday, one death associated with the virus, and 11,538 active cases.
