Dear Friends and Neighbours,

The global COVID pandemic is affecting all of us in many ways. We in Grey County have largely been spared the health effects as there have been relatively few cases in our community.

We are proud of the track record of our response to the COVID-19 emergency. The credit for this goes to the efforts of the Grey Bruce Public Health team and all of our citizens that kept COVID-19 from spreading throughout our community. We recognize front-line healthcare workers for their readiness to respond. A special thank you goes out to our long-term care employees who have managed to contain outbreaks in several of our long-term care facilities, again without a single death.

COVID is still among us and we must continue to be vigilant and follow all medical advice and orders. To date we have been successful.

Our community is a community of both permanent and seasonal residents. Many of our seasonal residents are already here and many will come in the next few weeks.

One of the distressing effects of the COVID pandemic is the spreading of negative “us versus them” commentary relative to permanent versus seasonal residents. This type of behaviour is counter to our community values and does not reflect the sentiment of the vast majority of our residents. All of our residents, both permanent and seasonal are part of our community. We are all in this together and the success we have had fighting COVID to date, and hope to continue with that success in the future, will require the continued efforts of all of us.

As we and the other levels of government begin to turn our attention to reopening the province and our economy, we must all continue to practice what has worked for us so well until this point:

- limit unnecessary travel;
- limit interactions with others outside your household to what is required,
- consider bringing your supplies with you
- do not congregate in groups,
- practice social (physical) distancing measures,
- wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face and mouth
- consider face coverings when social distancing is problematic.

Let’s all work together so we can continue with the excellent results we have achieved to date and stay safe.

Respectfully,

Warden Paul McQueen on behalf of Grey County Council