A letter has been sent to Premier Doug Ford asking for the District of Muskoka’s COVID-19 numbers to be reported separately from Simcoe County’s.
The Bracebridge Chamber of Commerce, Bracebridge BIA, Muskoka Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Huntsville BIA, the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce and Muskoka Tourism are the ones that penned the letter.
“The recent move of the entire Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit into the Control/Red zone is unfairly hindering our residents and our businesses ability to provide services and goods to our community and possibly survive these uncertain time,” the group says in the letter.
The Mayors of Bracebridge, Huntsville and Gravenhurst have also asked the province to make changes to how local coronavirus cases are reported.
“As you are aware the Control/Red restrictions come into effect when the weekly incident rate is greater than 40 per 100,000. While that is true for the (Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit), Muskoka has an incident rate of 15 per 100,000 which would put Muskoka into yellow,” the group of business leaders add in their letter. “There are several key indicators for Muskoka that are lower than Simcoe which could place us in Green. Our hospitals are not overwhelmed and there have been no large outbreaks in Muskoka.”
They say they’re “pleading” for the government to consider the change.
A letter has also been sent to the Health Unit’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Charles Gardner.