2- Southpoint Sun
Next few weeks challenging
Hospital CEO hopeful better days ahead By Mark Ribble LEAMINGTON — Erie Shores HealthCare CEO Kristin Kennedy, is hopeful that better days are ahead in the new year. But, she cautions, right now we are in for a few very stressful weeks. Kennedy spoke to The Sun on Friday, moments after the province announced that Windsor-Essex was moving into Grey: Lockdown of the COVID framework. She was among a group of area CEOs that were lobbying the government to take the area into grey. “We’ve been strongly advocating for this,” she said. “The hospitals need a break.” She said she expects that, if everyone follows health guidelines, the numbers will start to decline again after the new year. “Even if we get a week or two
where numbers go down, that helps the hospitals immensely,” she said. When asked if she was seeing a difference between the first wave and the second wave of COVID-19, Kennedy was quick to respond. “Yes, they are significantly different,” she said. “In the first wave, we came to discover that the Agri-farm and Long Term Care sectors were primary targets of the virus.” “The second wave is targeting the community — very randomly,” she added. “It’s also showing a larger scope of age — from 20 to 90.” And the co-morbidities and underlying health conditions that seemed to be present in most every victim in the spring, aren’t necessarily present in current patients. Erie Shores HealthCare is currently under siege with COVID
Erie Shores HealthCare CEO Kristin Kennedy.
patients appearing on a daily basis and several local people have been moved to hospital in Windsor for further treatment. All is not lost, however, according to Kennedy. She sits on the Vaccine Task Force and is hopeful that vaccines will begin to filter into this area within days. “I think it will take at least six to nine months to get everyone vaccinated,” she said. “But once that happens, it should bring the numbers down considerably.” Windsor-Essex, because of its current case status, will be a priority area, but vaccines will be issued to long term care residents and health workers first. In the meantime, she expects the end of January will probably show us whether we did a good job over the holidays or not. “Our plea to everyone is to keep your neighbours safe by sheltering in place,” she said. “I just hope people will adhere to this.” If they do, she expects the numbers to gradually show some relief, which in turn takes pressure off the hospital ICUs and will allow the province to lift some restrictions. If we don’t adhere, she expects the numbers will keep rising and we won’t see relief until much later in the spring. In a nutshell, it’s up to us. “If we can hang in there for the next four to six weeks, we may see some light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
UNTIL DECEMBER 31
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
DARK SKIES From Page 1
the latest, those wanting dark skies should see that achieved within the municipality. If greenhouse operators already have curtains ready to go, they may leave their lights on and close the curtains. The maximum set fine for contravening the bylaw is $1000. Although there were plenty of questions and discussion, it came down to what the residents indicated in their response to the public forum. “Our residents are livid,” said MacDonald. “This has gone on far too long.” Council also discussed the impact of cannabis odour on the community. Administration prepared a report outlining Bylaw 35-18, which has been on the books since 2018. The bylaw states that any licensed cannabis operation have an odour abating protocol designed to eliminate the emission of cannabis odour from a facility that is persistent or continuous and likely to interfere with ordinary enjoyment of other property. The report also stated that any Part II cannabis facilities within the municipality are in contravention of the bylaw and the courts are currently reviewing those cases. Part II cannabis facilities produce medical cannabis for individuals who have a medical certificate to produce it. The municipality does not receive notice from Health Canada as to any applications for such facilities. In the end, it was discussed that, unlike light, odour emissions are very difficult to determine the source and administration left with a promise to investigate the odour abatement protocol of the licensed commercial cannabis producers to make sure they are compliant with the existing bylaw.
Wheatley and Tilbury libraries open for curbside only WHEATLEY — Due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in the area, Chatham-Kent Public Library is changing scheduled library service to the Tilbury and Wheatley communities to help keep residents safe and healthy. Effective Monday, December 14, Tilbury and Wheatley branches have suspended open hours and are offering curbside service only. For more information and detailed curbside service hours, please call Tilbury Branch at 519.682.0100 or Wheatley Branch at 519.825.7131 or email CKPL at cklibrary@chatham-kent.ca.
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