Declare entire Peel Region a COVID hotspot, urges Mississauga mayor

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Two weeks after the entire City of Brampton was declared a COVID-19 hotspot, Mississauga’s mayor is calling on the province to expand the designation to the entire Region of Peel.

Speaking Thursday morning, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said expanding the designation would only include adding a handful of postal codes in her city and Caledon, and open up vaccine eligibility to everybody in her city over the age of 45.

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“Peel is a very unique region, housing more warehouses, factories, distribution centres, food processing and packaging plants than anywhere else in the GTA,” she said.

“We’re home to an incredibly large population of essential workers, who have gone into very crowded workplaces day in and day out to provide us all with the products that we rely on and need to survive.”

As workers live throughout the region, she said making the declaration ensures everybody in the region who needs a vaccine will be entitled to it.

“We have the supply and capacity to do this now,” she added.

The region, said Peel’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lawrence Loh, has already vaccinated more than 500,000 residents. Loh told 680News on Thursday he believes Peel could achieve herd immunity by the summer.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
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