Physical distancing, hand sanitizer may become mandatory in Chatham-Kent

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Dr. David Colby wants physical distancing and hand sanitizer to be mandatory at indoor public venues in Chatham-Kent.

Those two addendums to the municipal mask bylaw will be discussed at Monday’s council meeting, Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health said Wednesday.

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The bylaw making face masks mandatory in most public indoor settings was passed Aug. 10.

The bylaw also calls for making further amendments, in consultation with Colby, to address other preventative measures.

“When the mask bylaw was being considered, I made a request that hand sanitizer be standardized to be available in public and retail venues across the municipality,” Colby said. “Mostly it is now.”

Making physical distancing mandatory in “public retail environments (will be) tough to enforce, but we know that is the most effective measure that there is,” he said.

“If we’re going to mandate other types of behaviour, we might as well mandate the one that is the most effective in preventing the transmission of this.”

Chatham-Kent was down to one active case of COVID-19 on Wednesday, its lowest total in more than two months. However, the municipality went up to two active cases on Friday.

“I’m not relaxing, but I’m very glad that the number is one instead of 100,” Colby said Wednesday.

Chatham-Kent was also down to one active case on July 3. Just over a month later, there were 98 active cases, Colby said.

All it takes is one case to cause trouble, he said.

“I don’t relax about this kind of thing because, remember, that really all of the cases that we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic, there was a first case to that,” Colby said. “There’s always the potential to get large numbers again. We’ll stay on duty and handle whatever comes our way.”

– With Postmedia files