Ontario's chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams has been watching the COVID-19 situation in the Porcupine Health Unit and Timmins for the past week and a half.
At the Ontario Science Table briefing today, Williams had a message for local residents.
“It’s really time to hunker down in that area there even with the warmer weather. If the warmer weather won’t make you stay at home maybe blackflies will for the moment,” he said.
While provincial data shows COVID-19 cases are declining in most health unit regions, local cases are on the rise.
When a state of emergency was declared in Timmins earlier this week, it was also noted that the health unit is pushing to have the city declared a COVID-19 hotspot. It would help ensure vaccines and supplies are available for the community, enhance testing capacity and support a community isolation centre.
Williams said they've been working with Porcupine Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Lianne Catton.
“We moved in case contact management assistance, we are looking at more vaccines to assist in that and asking what other things we can do,” he said.
So far this month, more than 300 cases have been confirmed in the Porcupine Health Unit region.
He said Catton has alluded to the fact that "people had dropped their guard ... and that has caused spread throughout the community."
"We’re hoping that all the efforts together there will quickly bring that under control and bring it back down again and we only want to encourage the citizens of Timmins, in particular, but around there to exercise all those precautions and listen very carefully to the directions from their medical officer of health and to get vaccinated when the vaccine’s available," he said.
A vaccination blitz is being held this weekend in Timmins and includes free bus or cab rides to the clinics. Read more on that here.
