The rise in COVID-19 cases in the northern part of Wellington County has some mayors concerned.

This comes after Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health released COVID-19 case data broken down by municipality.

What the data showed was that, even though every municipality in the county has cases of COVID-19, the breakdown of positive cases shows that the Townships of Wellington North, Mapleton and the Town of Minto continue to have the highest case numbers in all of Wellington County.

Mayor Gregg Davidson said he is quite worried about rising case numbers and residents of northern Wellington, including his residents in Mapleton, need to realize that the COVID-19 virus is active in their communities.

“The actual numbers may not sound significant, but people have to remember that those are reported cases,” Davidson said. “We still have non-reported cases, and asymptomatic cases, so these numbers also in perspectives with larger communities would definitely put us in the red category. So, it concerns me quite a bit.”

Davidson said he thinks the rise in case numbers the result of a few things.

“One of them is that we have residents who don’t believe that the virus is active in the north, and it’s my message today, and I’m sure it’s the message of the other mayors, it is active, and we have to realize that, and to take the precautions that [WDG] Public Health have given us,” Davidson said.

Contact tracing investigations reveal that social gatherings, large and small, are responsible for the majority of cases.

On Oct. 20, the entire County of Wellington had zero active cases of COVID-19.

Davidson said that the virus is not going to be around forever, but people need to follow the guidelines to reduce the numbers.

“It’s very important that we follow those guidelines especially at this time when we are so close to Christmas, we want to keep our schools open, we want to keep our businesses working, we want to keep the arenas open, and let the kids play,” Davidson said. “So, it’s very important that we follow the guidelines to help our communities stay active.”

Davidson said vulnerable residents needs to be protected, and that includes seniors, and also those younger people that have health issues.

He added that it’s clear that not everybody that has a health issue are the ones that people have to worry about—everybody is at risk.

Township of Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson: