Thunder Bay – NEWS – The Thunder Bay Municipal Emergency Control Group (MECG) met today with community partners as part of its ongoing management of the COVID-19 situation, and discussed efforts in managing the recent increase in cases and navigating through these times.
“We have clearly entered the second wave of this pandemic, and we must do absolutely everything we can to protect and support the lives of the most vulnerable citizens in our community including our seniors, people with compromised immune systems and respiratory ailments,” said Mayor Bill Mauro. “I continue to reach out to regional mayors to urge them to build their local capacities as best they are able, and to keep top of mind regional capacity as they work with their Health Unit, Health Care Professionals and their local hospitals to ensure that the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre is not overwhelmed and has the ability to care for critically ill patients in Northwestern Ontario.
“I have expressed concerns to the Health Unit about travel outside of the community, as well as our long-term cares homes,” he added.
Restrictions Coming from TBDHU
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU) will be releasing new travel recommendations/restrictions soon. The current recommendation is to avoid all non-essential travel outside of Northwestern Ontario. Anyone with travel plans should decide if travel is necessary at this time, and consider rescheduling and/or alternatives to attending in person.
Long-term care homes across the city, including City-run home Pioneer Ridge, will be assessing changing needs.
“A major step in protecting our residents is to ensure we are able to protect our staff and to be able to maintain them during this critical period,” said Lee Mesic, Administrator, Pioneer Ridge. “Now more than ever, diligent adherence to enhanced measures must be in place to assist us in doing this.”
After initial review of the current practices at Pioneer Ridge, operational changes are being implemented effective Nov. 20 until further notice, including restricting short-term absences to essential absences only, restricting general visitation to essential visitors only and encouraging window and facetime visits.
Dr. Janet DeMille, Medical Officer of Health, said that COVID-19 is most definitely here, and that residents must take all public health measures very seriously.
Recently, a video update has been provided by TBDHU and the website contains relevant, up-to-date guidance for all residents.
