Decision to keep closed needs explanation

If nearly 12 weeks of COVID-19 captivity wasn’t enough to make you want to scream, then Niagara being left behind as other regions across Ontario are allowed to continue to reopen just might do it.

It wouldn’t be so frustrating, so disappointing, if there was a clear reason why. But when word came from Queen’s Park on Monday, there was no explanation.

We understand the severity of COVID-19 and its high risk of contagion. Of course, we understand it. Niagara has suffered and lost through this. But even as our number of new cases steadily dwindle — and recently, nearly every new diagnosis has been linked to a long-term care home or Pioneer Flower Farms, and not community spread — we continue to suffer.

Niagara is bleeding jobs profusely, as countless recent reports have shown. Our economic lifeblood, tourism, has been shut down since March.

With no sign of a full reopening, we at least had hopes of being ready to start the same kind of slow return to business other parts of the province have been granted.

Being able to eat on a restaurant patio. To get a haircut. Swim in a public pool.

It felt like we were there. That with continued precautions — social distancing, masks, getting tested if you showed symptoms, covering your cough — it felt like the time was right.

“I think what is happening is that the province is looking at our numbers and we did see that spike in cases the last few days,” speculated Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, after the province’s announcement Monday.

“Those numbers are due to (the Pioneer Flower Farms) outbreak. But if the province is not looking closely at the data, they may see the rise in cases and decide the risk is too high.”

We certainly hope the province is looking closely at the data.

If you separate the long-term-care homes, which are contained situations, and the outbreak among about 60 migrant workers at Pioneer Flower Farms, which is nearly as contained, COVID-19’S presence in the Niagara community is minuscule.

Chances are very good that many people don’t know anyone personally who has been infected with COVID-19.

That’s a credit to the effort we all have made so far — businesses and schools closed, people working from home, not visiting friends and family, frequent hand washing when we do go out.

We are glad the Ford government adopted the principle put forward by Ontario’s regional medical officers of health and is allowing some regions to reopen before others.

But without a proper explanation for why Niagara was lumped in with other GTA communities and not allowed a Stage 2 reopening on Friday, we’re left wondering what more we need to do.

Premier Doug Ford urged people to travel and take advantage of the amenities in the places that are reopening. So we can go there, but they shouldn’t come here.

Was it our proximity to the border? It remains largely closed, and most of the commercial traffic that comes in from the United States keeps on going right through Niagara bound for somewhere else in Canada.

And not all of Ontario’s border communities are being held back from reopening at Stage 2.

A while ago, it sounded silly when people claimed the cure was worse than the disease — that remaining closed for too long was a greater danger than the virus itself.

But maybe there is something to that.