Crombie pushing for Mississauga to move into ‘Red-Control’ zone when stay-at-home order is lifted

Mississauga’s mayor says she wants her city to enter the ‘Red-Control’ zone of the colour-coded provincial COVID-19 framework when the stay-at-home order is lifted.

Bonnie Crombie says the decision will ultimately be made by the province and that Peel Region should expect to find out where they will be heading by next Friday.

“I’m very hopeful that our overall case counts will continue to decrease in the coming weeks,” said Crombie. “If they do I will strongly advocate that Mississauga return to the red zone and not the grey zone, which will allow for broader reopenings.”

Mississauga, our #COVID19 case numbers continue to decrease, with the City now averaging 73 cases per 100K. You have a commitment from me that I will push for Mississauga to move into the Red zone on March 9, barring a spike in cases, which will allow for a broader reopening. pic.twitter.com/H29semE97r

— Bonnie Crombie ???????? (@BonnieCrombie) February 25, 2021

In the red zone, non-essential retailers and restaurants are able to welcome customers back, with capacity limits and physical distancing in place.

When asked about the possibility of moving into the ‘Red-Control’ zone, Peel Region’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Lawrence Loh, would only say he’ll continue to monitor the case trends and is not ready to give his opinion on the matter.

Earlier this week, Loh said a gradual reopening and the vaccine rollout will be key in avoiding a third wave.

Peel Region is preparing for a sped up vaccination rollout with three mass vaccination clinics set to open up in the region once the vaccine supply is available.

In Mississauga, the Paramount Fine Foods Centre will be able to vaccinate up to 600 people an hour at full capacity.

Loh and his counterpart in Toronto, Dr. Eileen de Villa, sought to extend strict shutdown measures and a stay-at-home order for their regions last week, arguing the spread of variants and recent reopening of schools made it too risky to ease restrictions.

Crombie was on board last week when the province made the decision to keep the stay-at-home order in effect in Peel, saying while the region has made progress “our Medical Officer of Health is extremely worried about the dramatic increase in the number of variant cases, which we know are much more transmissible.”

York Region entered the ‘Red-Control’ zone this week, joining Durham, Halton, Hamilton, and other regions in the process. The government decided to hold Toronto and Peel back after the expressed concern from health officials in both regions.

York has long logged some of Ontario’s highest COVID-19 case counts, but the region’s chief medical officer of health requested that the province move it back to the tiered framework to bring it in line with most of Ontario’s other public health units.

Calling a spike in COVID-19 cases ‘worrisome,’ Simcoe Muskoka’s medical officer of health is considering asking the province to move that region back into lockdown.

The region, which includes the City of Barrie, is currently in the ‘Red-Control’ zone and Dr. Charles Gardner says the number of COVID-19 cases last week increased by 30 per cent compared to the week before. The region is also seeing a large number of cases of the B.1.1.7 variant.

Gardner says he’ll be monitoring the numbers over the next week.

“I’m watching this very closely,” said Gardner. “We need to be prepared to go into a shutdown again in the near future if we continue to see this.”

The province’s economic reopening began earlier this month. The government has said, however, that it has created an “emergency brake” measure that allows it to swiftly move regions into lockdown if cases spike.

The stay-at-home order remains in effect only for Toronto, Peel and North Bay-Parry Sound until at least March 8.