Premier Doug Ford, in a news conference Tuesday, says he will order health care workers to work in only one facility during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He says he’ll issue the order under the Emergency Measures Act tonight.
It’s a move that major health unions have been asking the premier to impose for a number of days.
More to come
It appears more tests for COVID-19 are being done in Lambton.
Premier Doug Ford has pushed Public Health Ontario to increase the amount of testing in the province. Last week, the province had the supplies in place to test 13,000 people a day, said Ford. About 3,500 were being done a day across the province.
Public Health then ordered increased testing including all residents of nursing home and retirement homes, health care workers.
In Lambton, Sunday, there were 107 test completed, bringing the total number of tests to 788 since late March. Four days earlier, only 327 tests had been done in the region. Medical Officer of Health Dr. Sudit Ranade said at the time they had been limiting the number of tests because the swabs needed to complete them were not available.
There are now 118 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Lambton. Ten people have died, including six at Landmark Retirement Village. Twenty others have now recovered.
Public health says it is waiting on the results of 144 tests now including nine people in hospital presumed to have the virus. Another 25 people are in Bluewater Health’s COVID-19 unit now.
The number of people who have tested positive with COVID-19 in Lambton has climbed to 115.
Ten people have died from the virus since it first appeared in Lambton. Six of those people lived at Landmark Village in Sarnia – the centre of the outbreak in the region. There have been 23 people infected there, including seven staff members.
Some of the other cases are linked to group travel to Europe, others are linked to family and faith community gatherings, and to a limited number of occupational settings.
Bluewater Health says there are still 36 people in hospital with the virus. Twenty-five have tested positive already, 11 others are waiting for test results.
Lambton Public Health says 15 people have now recovered.
Twenty-two per cent of people diagnosed with COVID-19 are in rural Lambton. Nearly 77 per cent of the victims are over 50 years old.
Of the 681 tests performed yesterday, 88 people are still waiting to receive results in Lambton.
There were 401 more people diagnosed with the novel coronavirus Saturday in Ontario including 21 more deaths.
Right now, 738 people are hospitalized across Ontario with COVID-19, 261 are in the intensive care unit, 196 people are on ventilators.
Alex Kurial/Local Journalism Initiative
The Aamjiwnaang First Nation is closing part of the St. Clair Parkway in an effort to reduce traffic in the community and slow the spread of COVID-19.
Aamjiwnaang Band Council ordered the closure of St. Clair Parkway with the exception of local residents and emergency services only until further notice. The road will be closed from Marlborough Avenue to the Suncor gate. All traffic will be diverted to Highway 40.
River Road is a county road, Sarnia and Lambton County agreed to the road closure. The presence of several businesses along the road factored in, as these locations are at higher risk for transfer of the virus.
Sarnia Police says worker access to plants and facilities along the road will not be restricted, including Suncor’s Sarnia Refinery.
While they are not physically manning the stations, Sarnia Police said that they will be the ones contacted if the closure is not adhered to.
“If something were to escalate where people were causing issues and not abiding by their request, [Aamjiwnaang] would contact the Sarnia Police for assistance or enforcement,” says Cst. John Sottosanti, media officer with the Sarnia Police.
St. Clair Mayor Steve Arnold, whose residents use the road as a main artery to and from Sarnia, says there will be an impact, but important services will remain unaffected.
“Of course we’re impacted anytime you close off a main road like that,” says Arnold. “I’ve had a number of people who have called me about it.”
“They said [Aamjiwnaang] that they would make sure any emergency vehicles that had to get through would have the right of way and go wherever they need to be, whether it’s a fire truck or ambulance or police,” says Arnold. “I distributed that out to council and senior staff, and nobody had any major issues with it as long as the emergency vehicles were able to go.”
Arnold credited Aamjiwnaang First Nations Chief Chris Plain for contacting him in advance of the decision. “Chief Plain sent a note to myself and the city and a few other folks and let us know what was going on. So it wasn’t something that was a major surprise, and we could send that off to our public works folks and the emergency services.”
Arnold noted that the Lasalle Line remains fully open, a main truck route for the St. Clair area.
Waterfront access will also be limited to Aamjiwnaang citizens until further notice.
The local government has also ordered all construction within the community stopped until further notice.
