Two London-area health units get $5M+ in COVID-19 relief funding

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The Ontario government is doling out more than $5 million to help two public health offices in the London area deal with increased costs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) will receive $1.36 million while Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Oxford and Elgin counties, will get $1.49 million in what the province described Tuesday as “one-time mitigation funding.”

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Southwestern Public Health will receive an additional $2.47 million in one-time relief funding, the province also announced.

“Public health units across Ontario have incurred additional expenses throughout the pandemic, including those related to COVID-19 monitoring, case and contact management and local vaccination efforts,” Jeff Yurek, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London, said.

For 2021 alone, the MLHU sought a $7.3-million increase to its budget to help cover costs associated with the COVID-19 response.

The agency’s average payroll cost is $1.1 million every two weeks, nearly double the pre-pandemic salary expenses, according to a report prepared by the health unit earlier this year.

The increase was the result of the relocation of staff and the hiring of additional contact tracers to deal with new cases of the virus.

Personnel costs were also expected to increase this year as the health unit boosted its capacity as part of its vaccination campaign.

Yurek said he’s proud of the work the two area public health offices have done to keep their communities safe.

Public health units are funded by the province and member municipalities.