The reality of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is we can’t necessary control other people’s actions.
We’re talking from a government level and a personal level.
Person A cannot control what Person B does. Then again, the provincial and local governments are also not controlling where Person B travels within the province.
So if that person lives in a hot spot, they could very well travel to Chatham-Kent. We’re not in a green zone, but our active case numbers are still respectable.
And that is due in no small part to all the Person A types around our municipality; the people who are masking up where asked, are washing their hands regularly and social distancing.
We ask that you keep it up for a little longer, especially through the holiday season.
The first vaccinations could begin in Canada next week. Yes, it will take months to inoculate the entire population. So we have to extend our patience, and responsible actions.
Don’t have large family gatherings over the holidays. Stick with your immediate households as much as possible.
We saw numbers begin to creep up following Thanksgiving, and it has never really slowed down locally since then. On Thanksgiving, we had 371 cumulative cases. A month earlier, we sat at 366; a month after Thanksgiving, we were at 449. As of Monday, nearly another month later, we sat at 530.
We’ve had our social distancing hiccups. Let’s keep those to a minimum over the holidays and help everyone be as safe and healthy as possible.
Look no further than Windsor-Essex to see social distancing indigestion, with more than 4,000 cumulative cases, or Toronto for outright heartburn, where in excess of 45,000 people, more than the population of Chatham, have come down with COVID this year.
Both areas are in tighter COVID control situations than what we are experiencing, so again we urge you to try to keep our numbers as low as possible.
Unfortunately, we can’t prevent COVIDiots – people who live in areas of higher COVID regulations who choose to travel to areas with lesser restrictions – from coming here. But we can practice proper hygiene efforts and maintain our distance as much as possible.
And for those who can, mask up when distancing is not a consistent option, especially indoors in public areas.
