Brampton City Council endorses motion to move to ‘red zone’ ASAP

Brampton mayor Patrick Brown wants his city moved out of lockdown.

Brown says city council has unanimously endorsed a motion to be moved into the ‘Red-Control’ zone of the province’s colour-coded framework as soon as possible.

He says the city’s most vulnerable residents have been vaccinated, the positivity rate is down and hospital capacity “is the best it has been in months.”

#Brampton Council unanimously endorsed a motion from @paulvicente that we enter into the red zone of reopening as expeditiously as possible. Our most vulnerable residents have been vaccinated, our positivity rate is down & our hospital capacity is the best it has been in months. pic.twitter.com/AtrqS6zVqv

— Patrick Brown (@patrickbrownont) March 12, 2021

The province’s COVID warning system still consider Peel’s community risk level to be high, along with Toronto.

As of the latest provincial numbers the region has the highest case incidence and test positivity rate out of the five GTA regions.

Brampton currently accounts for 60 per cent of the region’s cases compared to 35 per cent from Mississauga.

As of epidemiological data through March 5, Mississauga’s positivity rate was 7 per cent compared to 11 per cent in Brampton.

On Wednesday, Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie also voiced her displeasure with Peel Region’s move to ‘Grey-Lockdown,‘ arguing it didn’t go far enough for suffering businesses in the region.

“I believe this is the right time for Mississauga to move into the red zone; with or without the rest of the region,” said Crombie.

The Mississauga mayor had been pushing forred prior to the province’s decision to place Peel and Toronto into lockdown last week.

Being in the red zone would allow gyms to reopen with capacity limits and indoor restaurant dining and personal care services to also resume with restrictions.

Ontario’s Science Advisory Table released another round of modelling on Thursday, pointing to more mobility as a driving force behind an increase in COVID-19 cases as variants continue to spread across the province.

The group says that while the drive to vaccinate residents and workers in long-term care has paid off in declining deaths and illness, progress against the virus has stalled outside that sector.

Ontario reported 1,092 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths on Thursday with 199 cases coming from Peel.

There are now 956 cumulative cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, 41 cases of the B 1.351 variant first detected in South Africa and 28 cases of the P.1 variant.

The province is reporting 6,513 cases where a mutation has been detected but the exact lineage cannot be determined.