By Cecilia Nasmith
Committee-of-the-whole meetings are now a chance for Cobourg council to get two verbal updates – the COVID-19 report Chief Administrative Officer Tracey Vaughan has provided for months now and the update on how things are going at the beach by Deputy Director of Community Services Teresa Behan.
Vaughan noted that Northumberland County has only 19 active cases at this time. Of 922 confirmed cases to date, 322 are variants of concern. At this time 50% of cases occur in those aged 20 to 39, and 20% of cases come from a source that cannot be identified.
Through participating chambers of commerce, she said, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is now distributing rapid-testing kits for small and medium-sized employers to test for asymptomatic cases in the workplace that might otherwise be missed.
Provincial age eligibilities have changed to permit those as young as 12 to 17 to be vaccinated. The hope is to give these young people their first dose by the end of June and their second by the time school starts in the fall.
The province has now administered 9,082,025 total doses and can boast 706,832 fully vaccinated residents.
“It's really encouraging to see those numbers,” Vaughan said.
The number of daily doses administered now stands at 97,740, and the province is allowing those who initially got an AstraZeneca shot to get a second AstraZeneca shot – or to opt for another vaccine if that is their preference.
Locally, 58,589 first doses have been administered, along with 3,434 second doses. And the really good news is that supplies of vaccines are increasing. In coming weeks, pharmacies are expected to offer Moderna and Pfizer vaccinations.
For now, however, municipal buildings remain closed except for the vaccination clinic at the Cobourg Community Centre – which has provided 18,268 vaccinations to date.
Behan's first report came on the day the beach reopened.
“The initial phase of signage has been installed,” she said.
The town's website has the latest beach news, Behan noted, and this is just part of the massive communications roll-out on this subject.
There is one entrance and two exit points in the fencing system, and two port-a-potties (one of them an accessible model) are on the sand.
The blue accessibility mat has been installed, from the pergola to the water, with a separate spur of the mat leading to the accessible washroom.
Regular testing of the water by the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit can be expected, starting this week.
There are signs on the lifeguard stations warning that there are no lifeguards on duty. Each station is equipped with a ring-and-rope device in case of emergency.
The bylaw officials have been present, Behan said, and no tickets were issued on this first day.
Councillor Nicole Beatty shared some of the enquiries she has been receiving from organizers of such sports as beach volleyball and frisbee. This is not likely to happen immediately, she was told, as Municipal Clerk Brent Larmer displayed the current regulations that prohibit not only team sports but other sports or games that tend to result in people congregating and failing to keep appropriate distancing.
