WINDSOR, ONT. -- Health officials and politicians from all levels of government took part in a conference call Thursday looking for solutions to what Canada’s health minister is calling a “crisis” of COVID-19 positive cases in the Windsor-Essex agri-food sector.
Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens convened the call, which brought together the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, local hospital officials, Essex County warden Gary McNamara, Leamington mayor Hilda MacDonald, Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk and of course, federal Health Minister Patty Hadju.
“Everyone has a role to play, the federal government, the provincial government, the municipal governments, farm owners and the workers themselves,” said Dilkens after Thursday’s call. “We have a collective and a shared interest to work together to make sure we can get over the hump and help the entire region move forward.”
Earlier this week, Dilkens, along with Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj suggested the idea of mandatory testing of agri-food workers to identify positive COVID-19 cases.
He’s concerned that the current outbreak, which includes 365 total cases in the regional agri-food sector and 169 active cases, will keep the entire region in Stage 1 of Ontario’s reopening strategy.
An assessment centre in Leamington geared toward testing up to 8,000 migrant workers in the region closed down Wednesday afternoon after fewer than 800 workers voluntarily took the test.
Of those teste at the temporary assessment facility, 61 tests came back positive, including 34 cases where the individual was asymptomatic.
“I just can’t force people to get tested, I just can’t do it,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday.
Instead, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott suggested the idea of a “hybrid” testing solution, which would include a combination of using the now-closed assessment centre and mobile testing.
“It would take 84 days if we did it just with mobile testing units and only 10 days if we did it all through assessment centres,” Elliot said. “So we’re working with Ontario Health and OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) to try and come up to a solution that’s going to be suitable that’s going to allow people to be tested.”
While the province works on its strategy, Dilkens says minister Hadju promised to work on solutions from a federal level and will consider sending people from the public health agency of Canada to the region. They’ve also organized a call for early next week to discuss next steps.
“We have a regional challenge, lets come up with a regional solution that helps us all move forward in a practical way,” Dilkens says.
