Enjoy patio dining — but responsibly, says Windsor-Essex health unit

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Restaurant and food service businesses preparing to offer outdoor dining on Friday need to make sure their COVID response plans are in order, says the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, the region’s Medical Officer of Health, pointed out that regulations require such businesses be able to show their plan “takes into consideration all the COVID-related measures.”

“Ensuring the employees are screened. Using all the personal protective equipment that they are supposed to,” Ahmed said, by way of examples. “Ensuring that they’re keeping everyone safe.”

Windsor-Essex — along with the rest of the province — is set to enter ‘Step 1’ of Ontario’s reopening plan on Friday, allowing in-person dining for the first time since the provincial government implemented “emergency brake” measures at the beginning of April.

Ahmed said he believes those working in food service “should get the (COVID-19) vaccine as soon as possible, to keep themselves safe and everyone around them safe.”

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Most importantly, Ahmed said, anyone who feels sick — whether staff or patron — should stay home and not go out in public.

Under ‘Step 1,’ businesses are permitted to have outdoor dining with a maximum of four people per table (larger households excepted, provided everyone at the table lives together).

“If you are booking these tables and making reservations… try to stay with your own family as much as you can,” Ahmed advised.

Public health officers will be doing their usual compliance checks and enforcement work, Ahmed added. “We’ll continue to do that, recognizing that this will be a change from what we were seeing before.”

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In regional COVID-19 statistics, the health unit reported an increase of only seven new cases, as of Thursday morning.

However, a new death was also reported — a man in his 60s who lived in the community.

Six local COVID-19 deaths have been reported over the past week, bringing the region’s total death toll due to the novel coronavirus to 433.

In better news, the number of active cases in the region continues to fall: 132 at last count, with 65 of them involving a “variant of concern.”

There are currently 15 patients in local hospitals with COVID-19, three of them under intensive care.

Also on Thursday, the health unit declared a new community outbreak: at Casa de Dios y Puerta del Cielo, a Spanish-language Pentecostal church on Parent Avenue in Windsor.

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Along with the long-running situation at the South West Detention Centre, that makes two current community outbreaks in the region.

Meanwhile, outbreak notices for two Windsor-Essex workplaces were rescinded, leaving four remaining: two health care and social assistance settings in Windsor, and two manufacturing locations in Tecumseh.

To date, there have been 16,695 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex.

In vaccination progress, 263,011 residents of the region have received at least one dose, as of Thursday, and 59,691 residents have been fully vaccinated with two doses.

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Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk highlighted confirmation from the Liberal federal government that 7.1 million doses of the Moderna vaccine will be delivered to Canada by the end of June — with deliveries from Moderna’s U.S. supply chain starting next week.

Kusmierczyk credited “strong negotiations between the Canadian federal government and the Biden administration,” and promised ongoing federal efforts “to ensure Canadians have access to as many vaccines as possible, as early as possible.”

To check your vaccination eligibility and book a vaccination appointment, visit www.wevax.ca.

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