Funding has been extended for one of the COVID-19 Isolation and Recovery Centres in Windsor-Essex.
Since November, in coordination with the Windsor Essex County Health Unit, Canadian Red Cross, and Emergency Management Services, the City of Windsor has operated a 117-bed Isolation Recovery Centre for Agricultural Farm Workers.
Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmericzyk says the funding has been extended until the end of March.
"So we don't have a specific dollar amount allocation for this extension," he says. "But this funding, there's about $135-million that the Federal Government made available to the Canadian Red Cross, specifically for the 2020 and 2021 year."
Kusmericzyk says the money is used to support the people in isolation.
"That includes things like meals, that includes whatever supports are required for these residents during this isolation period."
In addition to the isolation centres already in the region, Kusmericzyk says they are also applying for funding for a more long-term isolation centre that would be open to the broader public.
"[There is] A specific fund called the Safe Voluntary Isolation Sites Program, some of the successful candidates recently was the City of Waterloo which received funding for 15 months of operation of their isolation centre."
Kusmericzyk calls the isolation centres a critical component to stop the spread of COVID-19.