Are reckless residents in York Region behind COVID-19 spike?

Newmarket, Markham politicians express frustration, consider reducing gatherings to 10 people

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 14, 2020
Kim Zarzour

York Region faces a new challenges in the battle against COVID-19: “reckless” residents trying to skirt the safety rules.

The region’s top doctor, Karim Kurji, spoke to regional council this week about how public health plans to tackle the problem.

Since the middle of August, the number of cases in York Region has been on the rise, the medical officer of health said.

They have been increasing elsewhere, too, and it’s not yet clear if this is the start of the second wave, he said.

While there is good news -- most of the new cases are not scattered across the region but are in identifiable clusters -- the new cases are, unfortunately, associated with parties and gatherings, most recently a house warming and weddings.

The problem, Kurji said, is the province’s permission to gather in groups of up to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors (provided physical distancing can be managed) has led many people to misinterpret this to mean they could hold parties indoors without distancing or wearing masks.

There have been three wedding-related clusters recently, Kurji said. One was in York Region and gave rise to 38 cases -- 24 of whom were York Region residents -- and the other two were associated with weddings in Toronto.

Several councillors said they were in favour of clamping down on gatherings and “misbehaviour.”

Newmarket regional Coun. Tom Vegh said his town has had problems recently with a “fairly significant house with very significant land” that was hosting wedding parties, through something like Airbnb with caterers, as a way to get around restrictions that are imposed on banquet halls.

“There are people -- quite frankly, reckless people -- who are trying to get around restrictions,” he said. “It’s one thing to have family over, it’s another thing to have a party.”

Markham regional Coun. Jack Heath has also witnessed bad behaviour.

He referred to photos showing a local South Asian wedding where no one was wearing masks and guests were being advised not to take pictures so word didn’t get out on social media.

“There seems to be an effort to try and get around some of these rules and no one taking responsibility ... It’s frustrating to me," he said.

Kurji said public health has been working with local bylaw and York Regional Police to enforce rules, but it is challenging.

There have been surprise visits and some charges laid. One local restaurant that was not keeping a list of patrons for contact tracing purposes was charged between $800 and $900, he said.

But he added that laying charges can be complicated as “proper evidence” must be in place.

“In some instances, they aren’t abusing provincial guidelines, which allow up to 50 individuals indoors, but may be crossing the lines on physical distancing and so these are grey cases and we are unable to proceed very rigorously there.”

Newmarket John Taylor suggested York Region reduce the size of permissible indoor gatherings.

“They seem to be the potential spark for a second wave,” he said. “Reducing to 25 or 20 people seems like an obvious improvement move.

“The imposition on the public of limiting those gatherings is potentially far less than the possibility of a significant social wave, and if I have to have a few more upset emails in my inbox to play the role we should play in protecting the communities again … I’m certainly more than willing to do that.”

Kurji said he would go even further.

Banquet facilities and other commercial establishments already have to abide by rigid rules, but indoor parties in homes remain risky, he said, and he would prefer limiting those numbers to just 10, with backyard gatherings limited to 20.

Kurji said public health is looking into legal options to achieve this tightened restriction. It might take time, he said, as it would be better to co-ordinate with other public health units.

Until that happens, he will focus on encouraging people to not have house parties and limit those gatherings to 10 people in their bubbles.

King Township Mayor Steve Pellegrini cautioned on restricting numbers indoors, in particular with places of worship. “People need that spirituality to get close.”

He recommended guests be tested before large gatherings. Pellegrini said attendees to his daughter’s wedding three weeks ago were tested three days before the event.

“No one complained, everybody did it and it gave a little more assurance that things would go well.”