Mississauga mayor commits to “push” city into red zone on March 9

Mississauga’s mayor is committing to “push” the city into the red-control zone if the Stay at Home orders are lifted on March 8.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said, “you have a commitment from me that I will push for Mississauga [to move] into the red zone on March 9 unless we see a sudden increase in our numbers.”

Last week Peel’s Medical Officer of Health wrote a letter to the province, with Toronto, to extend the Stay at Home orders from February 22 to March 8, which was granted.

This was done due to the COVID-19 variants of concern and students heading back to in-class learning.

“I realize how disappointing this was especially for small businesses. We know the small businesses were never the main source of transmission and you have sacrificed so much and I have been disappointed along with you,” Crombie said.

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She noted that Peel region has seen “a dramatic rise” in variant cases with 60 confirmed and more than 400 suspected. Staying in lockdown for another two weeks would help monitor the situation, and see if in-class learning impacts community transmission — one needs seven to 14 days to see the impacts of COVID-19 spread.

“If the overall case count continues to decrease over the coming weeks, I will strongly advocate that Mississauga move into the red zone, not the lockdown zone, on March 9 allowing for a broader reopening.”

Crombie added that she is proud of the progress made over the last month with Peel reporting 88 cases per 100,000, and Mississauga averaging 72 case per 100,000 which is less than last week.

“We can’t risk what we’ve achieved. We remain vigilant so our numbers go down even further,” she said.

Crombie also asked Peel’s Medical Officer of Health to loosen current restrictions on outdoor activities like opening ski hills, so residents can enjoy being outside.

She noted that the decision to move into the red zone is ultimately made by the province.

The daily case count in Ontario has hovered around 1,000 recently as 31 regions are back into the reopening framework, with just Toronto, Peel, and North Bay Parry Sound still under the Stay at Home orders.

To date, Ontario has seen 297,311 COVID-19 cases and 6,916 virus-related deaths.