The City of Windsor has secured hundreds of more rooms to support the Isolation and Recovery Centre (IRC) for temporary foreign workers.
Windsor Fire Chief Stephen LaForet, who leads the city’s pandemic task force, provided an update to Windsor City Council on Monday and announced a second hotel is now online, adding 300 more rooms.
Over 400 rooms are now available as part of the IRC.
LaForet told Council that the additional rooms were secured this past weekend after amending the current agreement with the Public Health Agency of Canada to access additional resources.
Late last week, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit announced a ban on temporary foreign workers entering the region due to a spike in COVID-19 cases among the migrant farm worker community, which pushed the IRC to full capacity.
The ban was lifted Friday evening after health unit officials worked with all levels of government to establish necessary isolation requirements.
LaForet told City Council that last week they went from zero guests at the IRC to over capacity, meaning over 114 people needed space.
"Given the transmissibility of Omicron and the current rising cases in the congregate settings that the TFW's live in, additional capacity was urgently required. The health unit and partners determined that 350 to 400 rooms is required now," he said.
Chief LaForet also noted that this current plan is expected to remain in place until March 31, 2022 after which the current funding expires.
Officials at the City of Windsor are still waiting for approval on a request for additional funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to run the IRC beyond on the end of March.
In March 2020, the government announced $17.8-million in funding to operate the site for 12 months, but that funding is due to expire on March 31, 2022.
As 4 p.m. Monday, 75 people were requiring isolation at the IRC.