Grey Bruce's Medical Officer of Health is lifting an order issued prior to the Victoria Day long weekend directing municipalities in Grey and Bruce counties to close all beaches.
Dr. Ian Arra says the beach closure order achieved what it was designed to do: send a message to the province, not locally, that Grey and Bruce counties are not open for tourism yet.
Although the medical officer of health's order has been rescinded, beaches in Grey Bruce are not open en masse. Rather, municipalities can decide on restrictions or closures based on local need.
“The original plan was to rescind the May 14 order after two weeks, provided the epidemiological data stays constant,” a release from the Grey Bruce Health Unit explains. “Because the data has been constant, we are rescinding the order for all affected municipalities so that individual by-laws may be considered.”
New COVID-19 case growth in Grey and Bruce counties has been almost non-existent in the past two-plus weeks. The Health Unit has confirmed only one new known case since May 9.
Dr. Arra reminds the provincial emergency order restricting social gatherings of more than five people still stands. He expects municipalities that do ease restrictions on beaches will do so for exercise purposes.
“For walking through, exercising, water sports and swimming — there's no risk of transmission there and no real need to penalize anybody who's local who would need this, especially during times that are stressful, during heatwaves,” Arra explains. “However, gathering on the beach and what we saw over the weekend in some parks in Toronto, that would be the most alarming.”
Arra adds Public Health will continue to look at the data and evaluate going forward, and if there is a need for another modified beach closure order it will be done in consultation with various local stakeholders.
As of publication time, Kincardine had already moved to permit walkthrough access on beaches, while Huron-Kinloss re-opened its shoreline for exercise purposes as well — including to swim.
The area's largest and most popular public beach at Sauble remains closed. South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson has yet to respond to a request for comment on the municipality's plans for the beach moving forward.