Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Just when you thought it was safe …. A staff member at the Bracebridge hospital is the latest local case of COVID-19. Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) says on its website today the health unit confirmed it. But MAHC did not say if the test was the result of testing […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Good and bad news locally yesterday about COVID testing and results gave way today to more of the former and none of the latter. The health unit is reporting no new cases in Muskoka, Sept. 24 — after 10 were reported the day before as pandemic panic began sweeping […]
GRAVENHURST — As COVID-19 scares ramp up in the wake of 10 new positive tests in Muskoka any closures or signs of cleaners converging on businesses is turning heads. At the Canadian Tire Gas Bar here today the pumps were taped off and men in white haz-mad suits were seen going in and out of […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com HUNTSVILLE — Long line-ups for COVID tests could get shorter as the province partners with pharmacies to provide free testing starting Friday. At the Shopper’s Drug Mart in Huntsville today, Premier Doug Ford said Ontario will begin offering testing by appointment only, at 60 pharmacies with further locations coming online in […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Make no mistake — COVID’s second wave slammed into Muskoka today with the might of Teddy. At 1 p.m., the same hour as Premier Doug Ford was in Huntsville at a Shopper’s Drug Mart to announce drug store testing for the coronavirus, at the other end of Simcoe Muskoka […]
HUNTSVILLE — Premier Doug Ford arrives in Huntsville today as word that a school there is the first to have a case of COVID-19 in the local public school board. In an “important letter from the school” sent last night, Spruce Glen Public School principal Kelly Picken said: “We have been notified by the Simcoe […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Today it’s men in Muskoka Lakes and Huntsville. That’s the bad news about COVID-19 locally. First the good news: there were only 10 cases reported by Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, Sept. 22. But, wait, more bad news for Ontario — where the public toll today is 478. Media […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Think those blooms of blue-green algae popping up in Muskoka lakes this summer are no big deal? Well, reports today out of Botswana may hint otherwise. The mysterious deaths of 330 elephants in the South African country this spring point to the algae as the cause, says its government. […]
BRACEBRIDGE — Call it double double, toil and trouble. Or coffee and cash go. The owners of Oliver’s Coffee here have grounds to complain after a thief stole a stash of cash overnight yesterday. Police are investigating a break and enter at the Manitoba Street restaurant sometime overnight Sunday, Sept. 20. They say an unknown […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Two middle-aged women in Bracebridge are among the latest pandemic positive cases in Muskoka as fall begins and COVID-19 has become an almost daily crap shoot locally. And a woman from Gravenhurst, reported last Friday, has been removed from the virus toll. As Ontario hit another new high of […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Book signings aren’t a biggy for most authors. But for Rusty Draper they are. Not because he’s written an engaging, folksy memoir — a feat itself for a voice whose name and fame remain in Orillia radio — but because “I’m dyslexic.” Not too shabby for a Gravenhurst guy […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Add another Pines health care worker to the growing list of COVID-19 cases ramping up across the country as public restrictions tighten. This just as this week the District of Muskoka’s retirement and LTC home was cleared after 14 days since its last institutional outbreak involving a worker and […]
HUNTSVILLE — A tri-level government project that will see the town get another new transit bus and one to help wheelchair passengers commute is part of a $413,000 Ridership Growth Plan for Huntsville. MPP Norman Miller said Friday that Ontario is investing more than $122,000 in the plan by nominating it under the Public Transit […]
MUSKOKA — As Ontario experienced a huge spike in COVID-19 cases reported today at 401, two Muskoka residents have also tested positive, says the local health unit. The man and woman are both under investigation as the origins of their diagnosis. A woman from Gravenhurst is listed as aged 18-34. And a man from Huntsville […]
SIMCOE MUSKOKA — The health unit is calling for social circles to shrink at home an in public. They say today that a “worrisome” spike of COVID-19 is a rallying cry for smaller cohorts. They say in a release Sept. 18 that as coronavirus caes “sharply rise to numbers not seen since the spring,” the Simcoe […]
PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — Local hospitals are getting $2 million from the province to help deal with COVID-19. In Parry Sound-Muskoka, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare will receive $1,119,642 and West Parry Sound Health Centre will receive $ 1,006,394 for 2020/21 through the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund. Ontario is investing $175 million this year to address critical upgrades, repairs […]
HUNTSVILLE — As demand for COVID testing ramps up across the country, Huntsville’s political efforts to keep at least part-time testing in town has paid off. The District’s Muskoka Paramedic Services, Huntsville physicians and the Town of Huntsville have united together to keep the Assessment Centre, which closed a permanent site at the hospital two […]
GRAVENHURST — Janet O’Connell has a big job ahead of her. The Muskoka Tourism Marketing Agency’s new executive director will have to navigate rough waters as businesses struggle with the pandemic’s second wave. “My fellow board members and I have great confidence that Janet is the right person to lead Muskoka Tourism during our recovery […]
BALA — Twenty-six years after they first gathered in large numbers to be shephered through the darkened streets here, Bala’s Trek to Bethlehem is forced to take a sick day. “It is with deep disappointment that we announce that Bala’s Trek to Bethlehem has been cancelled for 2020,” says a release today. “This event, with […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — So why did McDonald’s close Friday when they learned an employee has the coronavirus? Shouldn’t they? And why less than 24 hours later did they re-open? Were all other employees tested? Did they get a clean bill of health? And what about their customers and the public? Good questions, […]