The past two years have been unlike any other for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU), as we began a long and sustained response to the greatest public health challenge of our time. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a toll on the physical, social, emotional and financial well-being of our community while profoundly impacting our most vulnerable citizens.
The health unit’s response to COVID-19 began on Jan. 24, 2020, when we activated our Incident Management System (IMS) and began working with our many partners, including from the health and long-term care and municipal sectors to ensure readiness, capacity and contingency planning in preparation for the expected impact on the health of our residents. On March 11, the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, followed soon after by Ontario’s declaration of a state of emergency on March 17. By April 2020, the health unit had paused most routine programming and had begun redeploying staff to support COVID-19-related work that included surveillance, communications, COVID-19 response phoneline, case and contact management, and eventually mass vaccination.
While the COVID-19 response dominated our work and forced the health unit to pause many non-COVID activities, the Substance Use and Injury Prevention, Healthy Growth and Development, Infectious Diseases and most Environmental Health programs continued to deliver crucial services to individuals, families, businesses and the broader community.
Our vital work would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts and collaborative work of all our partners from so many sectors, including health, emergency services, education, municipal, business and the Indigenous community. I am grateful for the dedication and resilience of SMDHU’s staff, the generosity of the volunteers who assisted with the successful operations of our COVID-19 vaccination clinics, and for the support of the Board of Health.
Looking to the future, we know that as a health unit and community we will continue to live with COVID-19. Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is well positioned to face new challenges that may emerge while we resume our mandated public health programs and services that promote and protect the health of all those who live, work and play in Simcoe Muskoka.
Dr. Charles Gardner
Medical Officer of Health