Seeing red in Sudbury and North Bay— small town business owner calls blanket restrictions 'unfair'

Two parts of northeastern Ontario are moving into the red zone for COVID-19 restrictions Monday,  but coming from different directions.

Sudbury and Manitoulin move up into red from orange, after more than 100 new COVID cases in the last week.

While Nipissing and Parry Sound are turning red, after almost three months in lockdown and two months under a stay-at-home order.

That means stores like The Farm in downtown North Bay can unlock their doors and welcome in a handful of customers.

"I can picture them right now and I can't wait to see them. I think we're all very excited," says owner Katie Bevan. 

"Of course, we're nervous, we don't want to go back into lockdown. We just hope everybody follows the regulations and does this safely, so we can enjoy our summer and our spring."

Bevan says she's "exhausted" after trying to keep her business alive through curbside pickup and online sales for most of the past year, but knows of other entrepreneurs in North Bay that have closed their doors for good.

Many have criticized public health officials for the extended lockdowns in Nipissing and Parry Sound, but Bevan says she "doesn't blame" any one organization or person. 

The vice-chair of Downtown North Bay says that "communication always needs to be better."

"We're kind of getting there now. Hopefully it's not too late," says Bevan. 

Sudbury is also turning red, after more than 100 new cases of the coronavirus in the past week.

The restrictions on private and public gatherings also applies to the entire health district outside of Greater Sudbury, where there are very few cases. 

Chris Fountoukis, co-owner of the Dominion Family Restaurant in Chapleau, says opening for only 10 customers isn't worth it, so he's only offering takeout and delivery.

He says the blanket measures covering the entire district are "unfair" when most of the cases are in Sudbury, a five-hour drive away. 

"It's kind of sad," says Fountoukis.

"We're struggling as a small community, everybody wants to support everybody and when they saw we had to basically shutdown again, everybody was upset."

Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, the medical officer of health for Sudbury and Manitoulin, says everyone is at risk of COVID no matter where they are in the north. 

"I think that none of us is immune, as we know, to COVID-19 and the measures to protect will protect all of us," she says. 

Dr. Sutcliffe has brought in additional measures, over and above the provincial red zone restrictions.

Starting Wednesday, there is a ban on all indoor team sports in Sudbury and Manitoulin and restaurants can only sit four to a table and they have to be from the same household. 

Sutcliffe says her staff at the health unit are barely keeping up with the contract tracing for the recent surge of cases and that she's "very worried about our trajectory"

"Our public health team is stretched to capacity, to human limits," says Sutcliffe.

"If people have been tuning out, now is the time to tune back in."