Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford is calling on seasonal residents in Ontario and visiting Manitobans to stay home and refrain from visiting camp until further notice.

Rickford says there were just too many Manitoba residents in Kenora and surrounding area this past weekend, and stressed that your cottage is not a place to self-isolate during the COVID-19 crisis.

He says this is a serious issue for local communities, noting we don’t have the hospital space right now and the public health risk is too high for people to make a leisure visit or open their camps early.

Rickford notes he’s working closely with provincial colleagues to review all options necessary to protect residents and the local health care system.

He’s hoping Manitoba makes a similar request asking people to stay home.

Grand Chief of Treaty #3 Francis Kavanaugh says he supports the call from Rickford to stay home during the pandemic noting they are taking all precautions necessary to protect their communities from COVID-19 and he’s asking residents of neighbouring jurisdictions to respect their efforts.

Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Gemmill says travel between communities poses a risk, and provides a perfect opportunity for COVID-19 to skip around and that’s why it’s important to stop non-essential travel.

Dr. Sean Moore is the Chief of Emergency Services at Lake of the Woods District Hospital and he’s sounding the alarm about the lack of resources in their emergency room and intensive care unit.

Dr. Moore states they are already well beyond capacity and treating visitors who attend camp will only strain operations.

He stresses adding several thousand cottagers opening up their camps is a recipe for disaster.

Kenora Mayor Dan Reynard says it’s a difficult request to make but the right one to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

With files from Mike Ebbeling.