The acting medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex believes more public health measures are needed to break the chain of transmission.
Dr. Shanker Nesathurai made the comments on Thursday while answering a reporter question about the latest capacity limits put in place by the province for large venues.
"We welcome the province's leadership in putting together capacity measures but I think in Windsor-Essex, we would ask the province to take additional measures immediately to try and help break the chain of transmission," Dr. Nesathurai said.
He feels the additional measures should be coming from the province instead of individual health units.
"The health district will act as it has to do, it has always done that but I think that it's better at this point in the pandemic to have province-wide direction."
Dr. Nesathurai says reducing capacity limits is one positive step but other steps need to be taken.
"I think reducing capacity limits to retail would be helpful. There are other ways to reduce human to human interaction which reduces the chances of human to human transmission. This is particularly important as we have to pull back from case and contact management to support vaccination."
The local health unit issued new restrictions last Friday for Windsor-Essex, aimed at reducing gathering limits and encouraging work-from-home measures.
The new restrictions impose a maximum of 10 people allowed in a social gathering indoors, with exceptions for weddings and funerals, and a maximum of 25 people if the gathering is held outdoors.
Restaurants and bars, along with meeting and event spaces, must limit their indoor capacity to 50 per cent to enable physical distancing and post visible signage indicating the number of people permitted based on this limit.
There must also be strict adherence to face covering requirements in all public settings.
The measures will remain in place until further notice.