Renfrew County’s medical officer of health warns against gathering for Mother’s Day

Many Canadians are set to miss out on Mother’s Day hugs for the second year in a row.

The Renfrew County and District Health Unit's (RCDHU) Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Robert Cushman is among several public officials who say it’s unsafe to host holiday gatherings this weekend, even as COVID-19 vaccinations seem to open opportunities to celebrate.

Dr. Cushman says gathering for Mother's Day will jeopardize the COVID-19 situation in the county, which is already on track to break its previous weekly COVID-19 record of 45 new positive cases, with 31 in total since Sunday, May 02.

“We're worried about this weekend, I mean we're also worried about May 2-4 and the fact that the shutdown comes to an end around that time,” said Dr. Cushman. “Any situations like these can be problematic, we had a big problem [with new COVID-19 cases] on Valentine's day, we had a big problem with Easter, so again we have to be very careful.”

However, Renfrew County's top doctor says residents being cautious is not what they are seeing right now in the area. The number of residents at their wits end with public health and their protocols are increasing significantly, as the pandemic stretches out. 

“I'd say it's very frustrating, and I might add that people are fed up with us and there's been a fair amount of abusive language and abusive active whether over the phone or at one of our vaccine clinics,” said Dr.Cushman. “You can see that everyone is wearing thin, but people have to realize that this is not the end of the race.”

The vaccine rollout in RCDHU has reached about 40% of the population thus far, but in order to reach herd immunity public health officials agree that over 78% of the population needs to be vaccinated. “As we see significant increases in supply over the next few weeks, we could well be pushing a 70% vaccine rate by end of May,” explained Dr. Cushman. 

The RCHDU's top doctor says Renfrew County residents need to “buckle down” because “the next month will be what decides if we will have a good summer, or not.” 

— with files from The Canadian Press