CITY PAGES: Pandemic News, Newcomer Help, and Snow Plow Names

The City of Guelph puts out a lot of information on a weekly basis, and while it all ends up on the City’s website somewhere, wouldn’t it be easier to just scroll through it all on one easy-to-read article on Guelph Politico here…? Continue reading “CITY PAGES: Pandemic News, Newcomer Help, and Snow Plow Names”

Public Health Changing Mask Orders, Still Promoting AstraZeneca

There was a lot of good news this week about the rollout of vaccines, but on Friday it was clear that there’s still some work that needs to be done to get us to the end of the pandemic. On Friday, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health announced that they are updating mask requirements to address the growing concerns of variants, while also trying to assuage doubts about the efficacy the latest vaccine. Continue reading “Public Health Changing Mask Orders, Still Promoting AstraZeneca”

Public Health Opens Vaccine Pre-Registration for Phase 2 Groups

Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization, a declaration that will remain in place until the majority of people are vaccinated for COVID-19. That effort is proceeding carefully, but there is cause for a bit more optimism today as Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is now taking names for the next phase of the vaccine rollout, and getting their lines jammed in the process.

Continue reading “Public Health Opens Vaccine Pre-Registration for Phase 2 Groups”

Masking Skeptics Take Part in Board of Health Meeting

On Wednesday, a couple of U.S. states cancelled all COVID-19 restrictions to allow businesses to re-open to 100 per cent capacity and to no longer require mask mandates. That was speaking the language of one delegate at Wednesday’s Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health meeting who said that mandatory masking at area schools was “abuse” and “violates our basic rights.” Continue reading “Masking Skeptics Take Part in Board of Health Meeting”

MANGEZ! Dine Safe Guide for February 1-28, 2021

Every month, Guelph Politico posts the latest inspection results from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit inspection of local restaurants, hotels, cafes, grocery stores and other businesses that handle food. We call it “Mangez!”, and this column highlights the latest inspections done by WDGPH, and the results they’ve posted. Continue reading “MANGEZ! Dine Safe Guide for February 1-28, 2021”

CoW: WDG Public Health is Outpacing Ontario and Canada on Vaccine Rollout

At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting members of city council will receive another update about the region’s COVID-19 response, and that includes vaccine distribution. While there’s been a lot of talk about issues with supply, Committee will hear that Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph is actually doing better than Ontario and Canada at getting shots into arms. Continue reading “CoW: WDG Public Health is Outpacing Ontario and Canada on Vaccine Rollout”

RECAP: COVID, Housing, and Environment Are Major Concerns from Schreiner Town Hall

The above picture is from the good old days when Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner could have a town hall with people in person. On Wednesday evening, Schreiner took part in a wide-ranging town hall discussion by phone, and his office pegs the number of participants at around 4,400 people, which would be hard to do in-person under “normal” circumstances.   Continue reading “RECAP: COVID, Housing, and Environment Are Major Concerns from Schreiner Town Hall”

Public Health Unveils Next Phase of Vaccine Rollout Plan

Many areas of Ontario, including Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph, re-opened from the state of emergency on Tuesday. On that same day, Public Health unveiled its plan for a regional vaccine clinics, approved by Ontario’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force, that will go into effect once additional vaccine resources become available. For most people in the region, this is the plan that will get them their jabs. Continue reading “Public Health Unveils Next Phase of Vaccine Rollout Plan”

It’s Official: On Tuesday, We’re Re-Opening Red!!

We’re red! Or we will be. Since it was announced on Monday that most of Ontario’s health regions would be returning to the colour-coded restriction system next week, we’ve all be wondering where Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph will sit on the scale. In a Friday announcement from Queen’s Park, it was revealed that like those final days before the province-wide lockdown, we’re going back to red. Continue reading “It’s Official: On Tuesday, We’re Re-Opening Red!!”

Guelph Had a Case of the U.K. COVID Variant. A Month Ago.

In mid-January, there was a super-spreader event on the University of Guelph campus where over 50 people had gotten together in the townhouse of East Residence for a Frost Week party. A couple of days before that though, there was another serious public health matter related to the pandemic, a case of one of the COVID-19 variants had infected a Guelph resident, and the public never knew it… Until now. Continue reading “Guelph Had a Case of the U.K. COVID Variant. A Month Ago.”