BARRIE -- While infection rates remain steady across the region, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is reporting more than half of all 360 cases have now recovered.
The local medical officer of health credits the public with slowing the spread of COVID-19, cutting infection rates by 95 per cent.
"If it weren't for the physical distancing people were doing in the first place, we would have a lot more of it," says Dr. Charles Gardner. "We would have had that surge that would have overwhelmed the health care system."
The health unit's top doc is warning cottagers to avoid travelling to Muskoka right now.
Dr. Gardner says an influx of as many as 80-thousand cottagers would strain the health care system and put everyone in the community at risk.
"People coming from, in large numbers, the greater Toronto area, where the rates of transmission of COVID-19 are about three times higher than they are here."
Anyone insisting on heading north is encouraged by the health unit, cottage county mayors, and the premier, to bring their own supplies and stay in isolation to protect others.
Dr. Gardner says the health unit also remains concerned with the spread of the virus inside long-term care and retirement homes, which make up 25 per cent of all confirmed cases in the region.
There are currently six institutional outbreaks, the most considerable remains at Bradford Valley Care Community with 35 residents, followed by Barrie's Owen Hill Care Community with 22 residents and 13 staff members testing positive.
Outbreaks have since been declared over by the health unit at Woods Park Care Centre and I.O.O.F. Seniors Homes, both in Barrie, along with an unnamed group home in Bradford.
