Dr. Jim Chirico admitted that he did not believe his health district was ready to move into the Yellow protect level.
The area's Chief Medical Officer of Health made that clear during his opening statement during Thursday's online media conference.
"As you are aware, on Friday the province moved our district into yellow protect level in the provincial COVID-19 response framework," said Chirico.
"Despite our relatively low numbers, I am increasingly concerned about the state of the pandemic in our province and more specifically in our region."
See related: Looks like we are staying in Red Zone
Last Thursday Chirico made it clear during his media address that he was encouraging the province to keep North Bay in the Red Zone.
"We are not back to normal yet," stated Chirico last Thursday.
"We are not on an island and we have to consider the COVID-19 situations around us. We have worked hard as a district to keep our case numbers low It is really up to each of us to continue to do so to protect our most vulnerable and enable us to continue on a path to steady re-opening," he continued.
Today, Chirico could not answer why North Bay was moved to Yellow giving the indication his advice was not taken by the province.
"I think that is a question you have to ask the Ministry of Health, and you can ask them why we were allocated into that zone," admitted Chirico.
"I believe we should be in a more restrictive zone and I believe based on what our surrounding districts are, that I would feel much more comfortable if we were in the Red restrictive zone."
