The Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit has updated a class order for self-isolation due to COVID-19.
The order originally took effect October 6, 2020, was revised yesterday and remains in effect until the Medical Officer of Health declares it is no longer needed.
The order applies to any person living or present in the County of Simcoe and District of Muskoka who are:
- People with symptoms of COVID-19, regardless if they get tested.
- People who tested positive for COVID-19.
- People in recent close contact with someone who has symptoms of COVID-19 or who tested positive for COVID-19. This includes caregivers and household members.
- Household members of people in recent close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
If you think you have any symptoms of COVID-19, use the provincial COVID self-assessment tool, and if indicated by the tool, get tested and self-isolate at home for 10 days (the period of time you are contagious) or until your test result is negative for COVID-19.
If you have been identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19, which generally means being within 2 metres (6 feet) of that infectious person for at least 15 minutes without adequate personal protective equipment (both a medical mask and protective eyewear), you must self-isolate for 14 days even though you don’t have symptoms.
This is because the COVID-19 incubation period (the period between exposure to an infection and the appearance of the first symptoms) can be up to 14 days.
Household members of people who have symptoms of COVID-19 must self-isolate until the ill person receives a negative COVID-19 test result or receives an alternate diagnosis by a healthcare professional.
If the person with symptoms in the household does NOT get tested, everyone else in the household must stay home for:
- 14 days from the last contact with the person with symptoms if the ill person can self-isolate away from the rest of the household; or
- 24 days from start of the ill person’s symptom(s) if the ill person CANNOT self-isolate away from the rest of the household.
A person who ignores the class order to self-isolate can be charged and fined up to $5,000 per day. The Heath Protection and Promotion Act also allows the medical office of health to go to court and seek additional orders to protect the health of the community.
For the Fact Sheet for Class Order for Self-Isolation, please click here.
For the latest information on COVID-19 cases in the region, please click here.