Thunder Bay mayor urges people to support businesses by following public health guidelines

Thunder Bay mayor Bill Mauro is urging local residents to follow public health guidelines to try to avoid further COVID-19 restrictions.

Mauro, who delivered a video address that was published across the City of Thunder Bay's social media channels, saidthe public's actions determine if COVID-19 spread increases and how that impacts whether businesses will be able to remain open.

"The two are just so obviously linked the best thing we can do is keep our numbers low, reduce the temptation for the province to affect our municipality the way they are in other areas that are hot spots and thereby allowing our businesses to continue to operate to a different level than would be the case in some of the hot spots in Ontario," Mauro said on Friday to CBC News.

Mauro acknowledged the trend of increasing case numbers across Ontario could at some point again lead to province-wide shut downs, but said his understanding is the government is currently sticking with its recent regional approach.

Premier Doug Ford said the province is "staring down the barrel" of another lockdown, with more health units moved into the red, orange and yellow zones of Ontario's colour coded pandemic restriction scale.

The Thunder Bay District remains in the green, or prevent, level.

Cases increase in the last week

In the Thunder Bay District, 31 cases have been reported from Nov. 6 through Friday.

Local public health officials have said the vast majority of the new cases have acquired the virus through close contact with an existing case. That surge in new cases includes an outbreak at the Adult and Teen Challenge of Central Canada's men's and women's centres in Thunder Bay, which have accounted for at least 17 cases.

The mayor said, while the health unit has communicated it believes the rise in cases is largely contained, it was a spike that hadn't before been seen in Thunder Bay.

"Nevertheless it did raise the concern in the community about how quickly things can change and get out of control," Mauro said.

Mauro said he has also been in contact recently with regional mayors, primarily discussing hospital capacity.

"Our hospital here is a regional hospital," Mauro said of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

"There's a mandate to meet the needs of the region and hopefully the district hospitals are preparing as best as they're able in terms of reaching out to their health care professionals and the province to position themselves as best they can should they have their own challenges and limit the potential impact on Thunder Bay."

Officials with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre said there are no patients with COVID-19 admitted to the hospital.