Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — A second Pines worker in a week has tested positive for COVID-19. And all residents will now undergo another round of testing for the coronavirus, which is spreading widely in Muskoka according to the health unit. The District of Muskoka, which operates the retirement home, said this afternoon, Friday […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — John Gordon Sloan knows death and suffering. The retired reverend is presiding tomorrow over a small graveside interment of his late wife, Pat, in Peterborough. Something he has done countless times in his long life as a United Church minister. Next week, Oct. 3, he was to do the […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — COVID’s spread is widening again with another local case in the north end of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s (SMDHU) reporting area. A woman in Bracebridge is included in today’s shortened list (four) of cases announced by the health unit. And two people previously reported testing positive for […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — With the too often dizzying array of health care options out there, a group of doctors is trying to sort out the mess. And that’s not just COVID testing. They’ve created a website to recruit new patients and doctors and help residents around the Muskoka Lakes find a physician. […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com HUNTSVILLE — As phones rang off the hook at the Shoppers here today, concerned citizens are getting testy about wider COVID-19 testing and who and where to go to get the fastest swab. A day after Premier Doug Ford was here promising quicker access to coronavirus testing at pharmacies, getting through […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Finally … some good news on the always busy COVID news front that’s keeping your ever-vigilant hyper local media in overdrive theses days. After a couple of positive tests at the Pines last week, latest test results for staff have come back negative at the District of Muskoka retirement […]

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 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 […]