Lambton County administration building on Broadway St. in Wyoming. Blackburn Media photo by Colin Gowdy.Lambton County administration building on Broadway St. in Wyoming. Blackburn Media photo by Colin Gowdy.
Sarnia

City, county, municipalities declare pandemic states of emergency

The City of SarniaLambton County,  and other local municipalities declared states of emergency Wednesday afternoon.

The declarations were made in accordance with the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, for the following reasons:

  • To raise public awareness regarding the gravity of the current pandemic situation,
  • To protect volunteers that are called to assist,
  • To preserve the rights of the county for future compensation should it become available; and
  • To ensure the organization can quickly respond to other unforeseen events should they arise.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Lambton Public Health said there are no reported cases of COVID-19 in Sarnia-Lambton,  but Lambton County Warden Bill Weber said they strongly believe there are cases locally.

"We want to keep this curve of cases as low as possible, and if everyone works together and the public respects the orders, the handwashing and the separation, then we believe we can keep this as low as possible, in terms of the number of cases we get."

Warden Weber said it's important to raise public awareness about the gravity of the situation.

"The declaration gives us the ability to meet and look at what's going on out there and respond rapidly to situations. We're not sure what the situations will be right now, but we want to be prepared, we want to have those discussions and make sure that the public knows this is serious," he said.

Warwick Township Mayor Jackie Rombouts said they're acting in the best interests of their residents and to ensure that operations within the municipality will continue running smoothly.

“We are dealing with a situation that has global impacts and we have good reason to believe that people within our community have been exposed to the illness," said Rombouts.  “By declaring a state of emergency, our Municipal Emergency Control Group is ensuring that we can take action to protect our most vulnerable people.”

Plympton-Wyoming and the Village of Point Edward also declared states of emergency Wednesday, and the Town of Petrolia declared one on Thursday.

The City of Sarnia announced facility closures including city hall earlier in the day.

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