The mayor of Pickering is making a public plea to people who are not residents of Durham region to stay away until things “get back to normal.”
Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan made the comment during an interview with CP24 on Tuesday, as the Ford government officially lifted the stay-at-home order in 27 public health units, including Durham and Halton regions.
“I want to take this opportunity to ask people who are not from Durham Region to stay in place and do what you can there,” he said, “When things get back to normal we will open you with open arms but for the safety of yourself and certainly for our residents and our community we are asking you to stay at home.”
Both Durham and Halton regions have been placed in the red “control” zone in the province’s tiered framework for COVID-19 restrictions, allowing most businesses to reopen with strict capacity limits.
Ryan, however, said that he is “very concerned” that residents from neighbouring Toronto will visit Pickering as a way of getting around the increased public health restrictions in their community, which will remain under the stay-at-home order until at least Feb. 22.
“Unfortunately there is not much we can do. We can’t put up roadblocks and screen people coming in and so on. But we are aware that some of our businesses are in fact asking people at the door whether they are residents and those that aren’t local are being turned away and being asked to return when things get back to normal,” he said.
Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe was asked about concerns around people region hopping during a briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
She conceded that it was a factor in the run up to Christmas when stores and malls were open in some parts of the GTA and not others but said that it is her hope that the same issues will not present themselves in the coming weeks.
“I'm very much hoping that now people, it's not a holiday period, people understand that all these measures have had a very promising effect. But if we let loose we are going to see another another pandemic wave and possibly worse,” she said.
