All must abide by lockdown, county politicians plead
Ontarians need to abide by the rules of the current provincial COVID-19 lockdown, whether they are politicians or not, says Selwyn Township Deputy Mayor Sherry Senis.
The Examiner reported earlier this week that Thornhill Progressive Conservative MPP Gila Martow, along with her son and his friends, visited their cottage on Chemong Lake in Peterborough County over the Christmas holidays.
“The message has been very clear that we are only supposed to travel for essential purposes and travelling to the cottage is not essential,” Senis said. “And if you decide that you want to go and hunker down at the cottage, you have to go through the 14-day isolation. You’re not supposed to go out shopping, you’re supposed to bring your food with you, because otherwise you’re breaking your isolation and this is how this COVID-19 virus is spreading.”
She said she doesn’t believe some people think it’s as bad going to your cottage as it would be to go abroad.
“But it really is as bad. A lot of the transmission now is through community and that happens by being in contact with somebody who has it. So, that’s how the numbers are going up. We have to stop this moving around,” Senis said.
During Peterborough Public Health weekly virtual briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, Peterborough County Warden J. Murray Jones said everyone needs to be a part of the solution and not the problem.
“We really do need to get through to these people who seem to want to protest this whole thing — and go into denial. I’m hearing from them every day,” Jones said.
At the same news conference, Selwyn Township Mayor Andy Mitchell, mayor of Selwyn Township, said, “No matter your politics, no matter whether you are wealthy or of modest means, no matter whether you are young or old, no matter whether you live here some of the time or all of the time, and no matter whether you have underlying conditions or are healthy, remember: the public health guidelines and the lockdown provisions put in place Dec. 26 apply to you.”