THUNDER BAY – Dr. Janet DeMille says with summer weather approaching, it was inevitable residents of Northwestern Ontario would want to start travelling again.
While she’d prefer people vacation closer to home, DeMille on Friday said it was unrealistic to expect people not to want to venture afar and even more unrealistic to expect them to self-isolate for 14 days upon return.
Combined with the low level of new cases across the country, the medical officer of health at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit said it became clear it was time to lift the isolation restrictions this week, allowing travellers within Canada to enter the region without need to stay at home for two weeks.She also added it was good for people's mental health.
“It really wasn’t reasonable to be expecting people, when they came here, to hole up somewhere for 14 days, and recognizing the challenges of being able to do that,” she DeMille said. “With all the reopening of the province and of the area, the businesses reopening and the opportunities to do more, it was very appropriate for us to back off that very significant measure we wanted people to take. We don’t need that anymore.”
Travellers, whether venturing into the region or leaving and coming back, are still being asked to take every precaution possible to avoid facilitating the spread of COVID-19. This includes frequent hand-washing, wearing masks in public, especially when unable to properly physical distance from others, and monitoring for signs of the virus.
“If you have symptoms, please isolate yourself and arrange to get tested,” DeMille said.
Opening up the region for travel does come with its share of risks. Toronto and Montreal are still hotspots, for example.
As of Friday, there are six active cases in Thunder Bay, although one of those cases is actually hospitalized outside of the city. To date there have been 87 cases in the health unit’s catchment area, with 80 resolved and one death.
“The number of new cases across Ontario is getting lower and lower every day. It’s below 200 today and that was really exciting to see. We can see that Toronto and the GTA is getting their spread under control very much so. We see that in Quebec as well,” DeMille said.
Ontario on Friday advanced into Phase 2 of its reopening strategy, allowing hair salons, tattoo parlours and malls to reopen, as well permitting restaurants to open for sit-down outdoor dining.
Travel options could also soon grow for people living in Ontario’s North. Manitoba is considering lifting its 14-day self-isolation requirement for visitors from Canada’s western provinces, all three territories and Northwestern Ontario. June 21 is the tentative date, should it go forward.
International travellers to Canada must still mandatorily self-quarantine for 14 days upon return to the country.
