While prospective participants in Port Huron Float Down filled the St. Clair County River on Sunday, local fitness officials said they were as involved with the collection as they were with others during the summer amid the spread of COVID-19.
“I’m afraid this is the next sandbank in Torch Lake and it puts us on national news,” Dr. Annette Mercatante, the county’s medical fitness officer, said in an interview Wednesday. He referred to the Fourth of July party in Antrim County, Michigan, where state fitness officials said participants tested positive for coronavirus several days later.
As they did before July 4 and Boat Week, fitness officials warned that they opposed to attending giant meetings, with the same six-foot social distance and warnings about dressing in a mask.
But with Float Down, which historically attracts many participants to thousands of participants, it’s not just the possible exposure and spread of COVID that worries fitness officials.
“This is the ideal time to meet in Canada,” Mercatante said.
Canadian officials told the Times Herald this week that the floats across the border would probably not get a welcome as warm as the 1,500 that were ejected from the neighboring country in August 2016. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, those crossing the border The maritime border for purposes such as tourism, tourism or recreational fishing can result in fines or prison sentences.
The U.S.-Canada border itself has been closed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, restricting the passage to critical traffic.
The effect of the virus also varies between the two local communities in any aspect of the St. Clair River.
St. Clair County reported a total of 828 cases on Wednesday and 74 active cases. As of Friday, 124 cases of this total were in Port Huron. In contrast, the city of Sarnia shared on Tuesday that there were 327 instances shown and 12 active instances according to Lambton Public Health.
Despite the local impact, many participants on previous float down occasions came here from out of town.
On Wednesday, Mercatante showed that it remained a major source of spread for some reported cases of coronavirus.
Float Down begins on Sunday afternoon with participants first converging at Lighthouse Beach in Port Huron before heading south along the St. Clair River for several kilometres. The most popular departure issues come with the Blue Water River Boardwalk in Port Huron, as well as Chrysler Beach in Marysville.
Local government historically proposed that identity be used. In addition to dressing in COVID’s mandatory masks, Mercatante said, “I only ask others to stay away from others if they need to do so, make sure to hydrate and row.”
It takes several days for symptoms of the virus to appear before those affected can be tested.
Symptoms of COVID-19 may come with fatigue, cough, fever, chills, shortness of breath, muscle aches, headaches, nausea or vomiting, congestion, sore throat, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
For more information about check locations, visit www.michigan.gov/coronavirus. St. Clair County updates its board on www.stclaircounty.org/offices/health.
County fitness officials said they would share the data with the public at the time of the exhibition.
“If we have epidemics similar to this, surely anything would stick in the whole newspaper and (the media),” Mercatante said. “I hope other people are careful.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter – Jackie20Smith.