WINDSOR, ONT. -- The Town of Kingsville has joined the Town of Essex in asking the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to release more detailed information regarding the spread of COVID-19 in the region.
Town council supported Councillor Kim DeYong's motion to make the request on Monday.
“We want to deal with the community as a whole,” Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos said.
He agrees more information would be beneficial for community leaders.
“Sharing the information, educating the public on what happens when we’re not following protocols. These results, these reports are going to be beneficial to us in the future,” Santos said.
Windsor-Essex County Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed disagrees, saying releasing identifying information would undermine local public health efforts that have been put in place thus far.
“If we are seeing no cases in one region that doesn’t mean that people do not need to take any precaution in that one region,” he said. “I think it is important that we know and we treat everyone that we are coming into contact with, could be a potential case of COVID.”
Mayor Santos says council heard of places in the Greater Toronto Area as examples of where detailed data is being distributed.
“Let’s continue to grow from where we come from, and build on that base so we can strengthen that messaging all around so there is no confusion, there is no fear of information being lost of falling into a gap,” he said.
The Town of Essex sent a similar letter of request to the health unit last week.
