WINDSOR, ONT. -- Beginning Saturday, more than 30 staff at Roseland Golf and Curling Club and Little River Golf Course won’t be going to work for the next several weeks, as a result of the latest COVID-19 measures from the Ford government.
“We were disappointed to hear the news this afternoon when golf courses were going to be closed,” says Roseland general manager Dave Deluzio.
Tee times have been filling up daily since the course opened in March, and not just by avid golfers according to Deluzio.
Rather, people looking for an escape from the pandemic.
“It’s almost a saving grace for them. It’s giving them something to do, remain physically active and a sense of normalcy,” he says.
Deluzio says there have be no COVID cases from golfers at Roseland this season.
“We feel like we’ve really operated in a safe way, wearing masks, maintaining social distancing,” he says.
Like last spring, non-essential workplaces in the construction sector are closed, which includes shopping malls, hotels and office towers.
“I don’t feel good about it. I mean no one does. The incident of contamination from what I understood in our industry was very low,” says Jim Lyons, executive director of the Windsor Construction Association.
Work on larger projects will carry on, such as the Gordie Howe International Bridge and housing development.
“If they say residential is allowed to carry on, I think at this point most of those guys that are doing some kind of home renovations are thinking that includes them too,” says Lyons.
The latest measures come as numbers rise in hospitals across the province.
Officials at Windsor Regional Hospital reported 21 cases Friday, up from 14 a day earlier.
Six are in ICU.
Essex-Windsor EMS has transferred two patients from GTA hospitals to Windsor Regional Hospital since Thursday.
“We can’t really afford putting our community at risk to help out GTA, but now we afford to put those ambulances there,” says chief Bruce Krauter.
He adds they may be called upon regularly to staff an ambulance, but it won’t affect regular deployment for the area.
Effective Saturday, Windsor Regional Hospital reinstated a no visitor policy with limited exceptions, in effort to keep patients, families, and frontline workers safe.