Niagara moving into red zone
Region among nine public-health regions set for new levels Monday
Niagara’s business community is celebrating the news Niagara is moving into a less restrictive pandemic zone Monday, but the region’s top public health official said there are already new local COVID-19 warning signs including a rise in variant cases.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, said 11 new cases of more infectious viral variants have appeared in the region as the decline in the local infection rate appears to have plateaued. The cases on top of the six cases reported earlier this week.
“I think this was premature,” Hirji said of Niagara’s move from the grey lockdown zone to the red, control level. The change will allow for limited indoor dining, as well as gyms and personal services like salons to reopen in a limited fashion.
Hirji said the local reproductive rate of the virus — a number that shows how many people an infected person can make sick — has risen high enough to stall the reduction in the infection rate.
That number has been rising all week, climbing from 0.8 to1.0 for both Thursday and Friday. A number below 1.0 indicates a declining infection rate, while a number above it is a mark of rising infections. Public Health Ontario has said that a region needs to have a reproductive number 0.7 for at least 14 days to keep the viral variants under control.
Hirji said he is concerned because the variants are up to 50 per cent more infectious than the original strain of the virus.
Genome sequencing of the 17 Niagara cases to identify what variants they are has not been completed. But Hirji noted variant cases are spreading quickly in Ontario. Two regions — Thunder Bay and Simcoemuskoka were put back in lockdown Friday because of variant spread.
While Hirji said Niagara is at
greater risk for a third COVID-19 wave to emerge, the chief executive officer of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce said she thinks “it’s the right step at this time.”
“It’s one step closer to basically opening up our economy again,” said Mishka Balsom, who said the chamber is “really looking” at the vaccine rollout in Niagara.
“The speed and effectiveness of the vaccination rollout is really what we’re advocating for at this point because that will determine the speed of our recovery. We have to take into consideration that countries like Israel, for example, are open now — you can go to concerts, you can go to sporting events because (mass) vaccination has taken place there.”
Under the red-zone limits, indoor dining must be limited to 10 total patrons at any given time and only a maximum of four people can be seated at a table at any given time.
Under Hirji’s orders for restaurants and bars those four people must be from the same household or be essential contacts, such as a caregiver or a couple that does not live together.
Retail outlets can have 50 per cent capacity indoors. Hirji’s orders require stores to enforce physical distancing of two meters and proper mask wearing, even in line ups.
The move to red goes against the recommendations and warnings of Hirji and most of Ontario’s medical and publichealth community. Hirji pointed out the colour-coded system failed to stop the second COVID-19 wave — which in Niagara claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who organized an open letter where 11 of Niagara’s 12 mayors supported moving the region’s economy into the red zone, said the environment is different now, with vaccines being administered to the most vulnerable in long-term care and highrisk retirement homes.
“We’re being cautious, and our entire message was moving to red would be a very slow and steady step forward, recognizing all the efforts that have been made by residents and businesses,” Sendzik said.
Sendzik described the move to red as “the next prudent move towards opening up the economy, but that “we’re not out of the woods yet.”
“We still have a ways to go on the vaccination strategy, therefore we need to keep our guard up as we move into red.
That is a completely pragmatic and responsible message that the mayors were delivering.”
Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said he believes Niagara has done “an excellent job” of following provincial protocols, and that moving to red was the right call.
“We’ve got a lot of people just barely hanging on mentally and financially. They need a glimmer of good news,” he said.
“It just cracks open the door to let a little bit of fresh air and sun light in. Businesses will not make money with those small numbers, but at least it moves them in the right direction.”
Grant Lafleche is a St. Catharines-based investigative reporter with the Standard. Reach him via email: grant.lafleche@niagaradailies.com Ray Spiteri is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach him via email: raymond.spiteri@niagaradailies.com