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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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!!”
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.”
As this week started, the 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases is just a few points above the red line of 40 per 100,000, while the test positivity rate is now at 3.6 per cent. This is good news since it was just a month ago that the numbers were over 115 per 100,000 and five per cent. The numbers are going down, but where does the local medical officer think we stand in all this? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #260 – Still COVID [Winter Edition] with Dr. Mercer”
The first Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health meeting for 2021 offered some hope for the future even if it wasn’t an immediate hope. With vaccine delays out of her control, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer focused on the swift delivery of what vaccines have been received, and the fact that it looks like the virus has peaked in Guelph and area for this second wave. Continue reading “Outlook Still Positive Despite Vaccine Concerns at Board of Health”
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 January 1-31, 2021”
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