Tecumseh council voted unanimously to suspend town hall’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Council unanimously approved to suspend the policy on Tuesday night. The town was the last municipality in Windsor-Essex to suspend its policy.
Mayor Gary McNamara says it wasn’t a big issue to make the change.
“It's time and so forth and we've, it wasn't a real big push up on our end because we have nobody that's been suspended. We have nobody that's out of work. We have nobody that got laid off,” he says.
The vaccine policy was approved by council in September 2021 and it has not been revised since then.
McNamara says it’s like the end of an era.
“Well, I mean, the end of an era,” he said. “We know a lot more today than what we did in March 17 2020. Obviously, with obviously the science behind it and research and vaccination now it's like the influenza now it's just basically every year look, get your shot and it's voluntary and stay healthy. That's basically the whole thing, but we have a greater understanding now of what we need to do to protect ourselves.”
Vaccine policies were suspended in Kingsville, Essex and LaSalle in March 2022, Lakeshore in May 2022, and Windsor in November 2022.
Leamington ended its policy in January 2023, Amherstburg in March 2023, and the County of Essex fully rescinded its policy in May 2023.
