Belleville’s city centre is adjusting to the COVID-19 restrictions as they develop, but is still inviting people downtown.

Executive Director of Belleville Downtown District Marijo Cuerrier says things are changing “moment by moment.”

Currier tells Quinte News, “Things are changing moment by moment and that means we’ve got to make decisions fairly quickly, together as a community, but also as individuals who own stores. Each industry is different. The restaurant industry is different than the retail industry, for instance. For the last few days restaurants have definitely been feeling the effects of COVID. We’ve been in constant contact with them, monitoring what each individual restaurant is doing, and then as of this morning (Tuesday), because of the state of emergency declared (by Ontario), the restaurants are all now mandated to close. So, that sort of makes that a blanket solution.” She adds, “Now each decides on its own what it will do next.”

Her suggestion to the public, “Don’t be afraid to come downtown even just for a walk or bike ride at the river. It’s open air.”

In terms of downtown retailers, some are open, some are on reduced hours, others are closed. Cuerrier continues, “So what we are telling our visitors is, before you come downtown certainly give the places that you’re thinking of visiting a call, to make sure that they’re open.”

Cuerrier noted a decision will be made mid-April on the Shop Hop event planned for May and is optimistic that Downtown at Dusk will go ahead in June.

“We’re not cancelling it at this point, and certainly our June event Downtown at Dusk, we’re hoping that we can still push that forward. That could change any day, but at this point, because we’re really sort of going on the up swing for COVID-19 we don’t see a need to cancel at this point. That could change any minute though.”