Sudbury businesses react to news that region is moving into COVID-19 'yellow zone'

Ontario is making further changes to its COVID-19 response framework to try and slow the spread of COVID-19 — and that means communities that fall withing the Public Health Sudbury and District catchment area are being bumped into what is called the "yellow zone."

The new categorization means, according to provincial guidelines, that there will be "enhanced targeted enforcement, fines, and enhanced education to limit further transmission."

The changes come into effect on Monday.

For Sudbury business owner Kyle Markus, who runs The Alibi Room downtown, the news wasn't really a surprise.

"It's something we've been expecting at this point. I'm just really thankful to be working. And it's you know, it's not a huge shock. It's not a huge change," he said.

"We were looking forward to the longer time to be at work and the ability to use our peak hours to actually make money. But with so much going on, you know, I'm just thankful to be up and running and working."

Next Tuesday they will be operating between the hours of 4 pm. and 11 p.m., shaving off a few hours of daily operations.

The lounge owner says he doesn't think increasing restrictions will help.

"I do not think that [the yellow zone rules] will help keep our community safer. I understand why they're there. I'm thankful that we have to keep people seated, that we have to keep people contained in their areas," Markus said.

"We do hope that they come out with their bubble and they're not mixing friends and bubbles and all that. They're coming out with their people that they do stay safe with. And we make that assumption. But, you know, I don't I don't necessarily think that an 11 p.m. close is effective."

He says once people go home, there are no way to supervise that people are respecting pandemic safety precautions.

The threat of a lockdown keeps him up at night.

"It's terrifying to think that we would go back into a lockdown. And over the course of time that has passed, we haven't found a better way to deal with this pandemic issue. That said, it may be the only way to deal with this pandemic issue."

Markus says it is his hope that people act responsibly in their daily lives and keep people like him in mind.

"We are directly vulnerable to the choices that individuals make in their daily lives right now. And I think we're seeing that now when the decision to go to one house party shuts an entire city down."

'Choose wisely and dig deep'

In a news release issued Friday, PHSD's medical officer of health stated the new restrictions "must be accompanied by a re-commitment of everyone to the basic public health prevention measures."

"Our case counts are at an all-time high with 40 of our 204 total cases reported in the last week alone," Dr. Penny Sutcliffe said.

"We are averaging about 12 high-risk contacts for each case so far. These numbers, combined with how stretched our public health and health care systems are, mean that stronger protection measures are needed. How this surge in cases evolves and the measures and restrictions that will be necessary to control it are in our hands. Make no mistake, our everyday actions either allow the virus to spread or allow us to contain it. We can choose wisely and dig deep."

'We're all in it together'

Digging deep is something Sudbury's Adam Ball is accustomed to. The owner of the Sudbury School of Fitness says moving into the yellow zone is unfortunate, but understandable with all the cases that have popped up lately.

"It's always good to err on the side of caution. We've already limited the amount of people we allow in the gym at any given time," he said.

"And we're pretty strict about when people can come, when they have to be out by, one-way traffic and all sorts of other sanitisation and that type of thing. So we took it very seriously when we were first allowed to reopen. We wanted to make sure we were going above and beyond back then."

Ball says he doesn't think he'll have to make any big changes at this point, but will comb through the details to make sure his business is following the guidelines.

Operating during this pandemic has been tough, he noted.

"Especially being a business that — we hope — is contributing significantly to people's health. And people are hopefully taking an active role in trying to improve their health. It's tough to keep things locked down more," he said.

"You can already tell the difference in people with less connections than they used to have, that type of thing. But, for the most part, you can tell everyone is just doing their best and I feel like we're all kind of in it together." 

What do the colour zones mean?

• Prevent (Green): Restrictions in this category "reflect broadest allowance of activities in Stage 3 absent a widely available vaccine or treatment," the province said in a document provided to reporters.

• Protect (Yellow): "Enhanced targeted enforcement, fines, and enhanced education to limit further transmission," the document reads.

• Restrict (Orange): "Implement enhanced measures, restrictions, and enforcement avoiding any closures [emphases added]. 

• Control (Red): "Restrictions are the most severe available before wide-scale business or organizational closure," the document said. In essence, this category represents a return to a modified Stage 2.

• Lockdown (Grey): This would likely coincide with a declaration of emergency in the province, and would include a return to Stage 1.

Read more about Ontario's colour coded COVID-19 public health measures: