Drew Dilkens: Latest News

Mike Bradley is among 15 Canadian mayors calling for the federal government to scrap all COVID-19 testing requirements for land border travellers who are double- or triple-vaccinated.In an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the border city mayors, including Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, ask for an end to the testing guidelines, which they say are out of line with public health mandates and unjustified by current science.The letter, also cc’d to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, public safety minister Marco Mendocino, and health minister Jean-Yves Duclos, cites the “heavy price” pandemic travel measures have had on border communities, including through the lengthy closure of the land border to all but essential travel. Feds scrapping pre-arrival COVID PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers The letter comes days after the federal government lifted its pre-arrival PCR test requirements for double- and triple-vaccinated travellers.As of Monday, a negative rapid antigen or PCR test result will be accepted to meet entry requirements, provided the tests are administered by a lab or health care entity.

Windsor, Ont., is calling for residents to treat one another as human beings after police charged a woman for allegedly threatening to bomb his home over COVID-19 mandates.Windsor police said they arrested the 31-year-old woman Thursday for a social media post on a thread about COVID-19 and pandemic mandates. They allege she made the comments Monday, a day after a protest was cleared at the Ambassador Bridge.“Regardless of your opinion on vaccinations or Justin Trudeau or myself or Doug Ford, we all just have to step back and take a breath and realize that we’re dealing with human beings and that we all have more in common than differences,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a phone interview.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a meeting with leaders of opposition parties Thursday evening, where he said he briefed them on the latest developments of the trucker convoy protests and blockades.

COVID-19 vaccine doses are regularly going into garbage bins just kilometers away from the Canadian border, according to local mayors and health care providers who are now fighting to get the jabs to go into Canadian arms instead.Windsor, Ont., Mayor Drew Dilkens, whose city sits right on the Canada-U.S. border, said pharmacists who live in Windsor but work in the United States have been continually offering him their excess doses at the end of the day.

COVID-19 rules when dining out with seven other people last week.Mayor Drew Dilkens made a statement to Windsor city council on Monday, saying he made an “unfortunate error” that should not have occurred.Windsor was in the yellow tier of Ontario’s COVID-19 restrictions system last week.[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]The yellow tier permits only six people to dine together while inside a restaurant.

Windsor, Ont., says his city will proceed cautiously to Stage 3 of reopening, and will ask for additional resources if local cases increase in the coming weeks.Drew Dilkens says he is confident that declining COVID-19 cases in the region over the last week make it safe to reopen further.The Windsor-Essex region, which has been held back because of outbreaks on local farms, will proceed to Stage 3 of the province’s reopening framework on Wednesday.The local health unit says there are 131 active COVID-19 cases in the community — 63 of them among agri-food workers. Windsor-Essex allowed to enter Stage 3 on Wednesday The medical officer of health, Dr.

COVID-19 outbreaks in farms.Officials from around the region say the situation requires greater co-ordination than can be provided locally.Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says there have been instances where “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” and having a lead agency would help prevent that.Farms in Windsor-Essex have been hit hard by COVID-19, with four currently in outbreak.

COVID-19 outbreaks in the region’s sprawling greenhouses ahead of a possible second wave of the virus this fall.The southwestern Ontario region became a hot spot for the virus this month, as a spike in cases among migrant workers led to hundreds of positive cases and two deaths.The outbreaks also prompted the province to reopen only part of the region this week, leaving the towns of Leamington and Kingsville, Ont., behind as Windsor and other communities reopened further.

COVID-19 on local farms.Drew Dilkens said Tuesday that the high number of COVID-19 cases on farms in Essex County was holding back the entire region, and the local economy could not face another week of delay.The mayor said public health officials have failed to ensure all migrant workers are tested for COVID-19, and called on farmers to step in so the region can join the rest of the province in Stage 2 of reopening.“While the local health unit has thus far refused to test the full temporary foreign worker population, this next week presents an opportunity for our local agricultural community to step in where public health officials have failed,” Dilkens said in a statement.