Frontenac County remains essentially COVID free, but new province-wide restrictions still apply

Sep 23, 2020

There is a small map of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington at the bottom right hand side of the Kingston Frontenac Public Health COVID-19 cases dashboard on their website.

If you float your cursor over South, Central, and North Frontenac, the same numbers will pop up now as popped up on June 30, 10 for South Frontenac, 3 for Central Frontenac, and 1 for North Frontenac (the number for Addington Highlands is 0)

These number represent the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among residents of each township since the COVID-29 pandemic began. Somehow, even with an influx of cottagers, tourists, and weekend visitors, there were no new COVID cases in Frontenac over the last 3 months. But since borders are fluid, the risk that school re-openings brings and the overall increase in COVID cases in Ontario, new restrictions have come into effect in recent days and weeks.

One of the restrictions will have an impact on community halls that are just in the process of re-opening. Last Saturday (September 19) the following was posted at Ontario.ca, the government site.

“The new limit on the number of people allowed to attend an unmonitored private social gathering across the province is: 10 people at an indoor event or gathering (previous limit of 50); or 25 people at an outdoor event or gathering (previous limit of 100). Indoor and outdoor events and gatherings cannot be merged together. Gatherings of 35 (25 outdoors and 10 indoors) are not permitted.”

Minister of Health Christine Elliott said, "We are taking further action to slow the spread and limit new cases of COVID-19 by reducing the size of private social gatherings across Ontario. This action is based on the increasing case counts that we are seeing. As we continue to closely monitor the spread of this virus, we will never hesitate to take further action to protect the health and well-being of all Ontarians."

There are exceptions to the rule, including “bars, restaurants, cinemas, convention centres, banquet halls that are staffed, gyms, places of worship, recreational sporting or performing art events” which will make the rules less onerous, but their impact on public evens like this week’s studio tour in North Frontenac and a planned car and ATV rally in the Sharbot Lake area, are not exactly clear.

Restrictions that are in place within retirement homes have also caused controversy among residents. Last week, inspectors who were attending at Sharbot Lake Retirement and Retreat to ensure that a number of issues they had raised in late August had been addressed, were greeted the residents of the home, who had questions about some of the rules that have recently been enforced.

One of their main concerns centred around the requirement that they maintain a 2-metre distance between each other at all times, including during meal time. Given the size of the dining hall in the building, the 18 residents need to be split into two groups at mealtime.

This makes mealtime, the main social event at the retreat, less of an occasion, and because many of the residents have compromised hearing, “its as if we are eating alone. We might as well stay in our rooms,” said one resident.

The Public Health Inspector told the residents that the measures are not in place to punish anyone, but were there because if one resident contracted COVID-19, they would all be at a high risk.

“We are tested every two weeks,” said the resident.

“That is great, but the test only shows you were COVID free when the test was taken, not after it was taken” said the inspector.

The rules around dining and visiting, that residents also complained about, will stay in place.

Retirement residences operate under the Retirement Home Act, which stresses resident independence, and is generally is less restrictive than the Long-Term Care Act, which applies at places like Fairmount Home and Pine Meadow Nursing Home.

Under COVID Directive $# for Long Term Care Homes, Retirement Residences and Long-Term Care Homes are under the same COVID relate restrictions.

While the residents of Sharbot Lake Retirement and Retreat had a hearing from a public health inspector, it was clear that Directive #3 is in force in full at those institutions in Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington where it applies, even though, to this point, there have been no cases at all.