City of Thunder Bay still waiting for COVID-19 support from the province

The City of Thunder Bay is still waiting for the province to respond to its second pandemic-related state of emergency, Mayor Bill Mauro said Wednesday.

The latest emergency declaration came on Feb. 2and was directed specifically at health and social services in the city.

"Part of the justification in the reasoning for declaring the second emergency was that it would provide an opportunity, a pathway for us to get more resources from the Province of Ontario when it came to health and human resources, and when it came to funding," Mauro said during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.

"It's been three weeks almost to the day since we declared the second emergency," he said. "We have yet to hear anything from them on that front.The point today is we need their help. We need more bodies. We need health professionals, and we need funding assistance to manage the situation that we're currently in right now."

Earlier Wednesday, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit announced 46 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Thunder Bay District.

As of that announcement, there were 304 confirmed active cases of the virus in the area.

Mauro said the city has also applied to the federal government for support.

"If it is successful, it would provide supports for the city from around the beginning of April towards September, perhaps to the end of September," Mauro said. "We are asking the federal government, please do what you can to expedite that particular application. We need that help."

Mauro also addressed people in the city who are not adhering to public health guidelines, despite the growing number of COVID-19 cases.

"It's never been more important than now that people adhere as best they can to the public health guidelines," he said. "It remains as important as ever. It's all that we can do. And so we're hearing that a number of people are not adhering to that."

"So we implore you, please, to continue to do everything that you can to follow these guidelines," Mauro said. "There is positive news on the horizon. We will get out of this together as a group."