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Dear MNM 2020 Writer and/or Community Member:
Like everyone else organizing an event in which a group of people are in close proximity to each other, the MNM 2020 Committee has been learning fast and thinking hard about the coronavirus, aka Covid-19.
Because new cases in Canada are now increasing sharply, Ontario has ordered schools closed for the two weeks after the March break, and all sorts of events, attractions, businesses, etc., are being cancelled and shut down to force and encourage social distancing. This is true also of the Town of Huntsville, where many town events and services have been cancelled or shut down in the last few days. It hasn’t got as far as all non-essential businesses being closed, yet, but that might come.
For context on the importance of social distancing and tightened hygiene, see this article, and especially its graphs: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca . It’s not about defeating the disease; it’s about dulling and slowing its impact so that not too many people get it at once for the healthcare system to treat and save. And it’s about the fact that you can catch Covid-19 and spread it to other people for 4-5 days before you feel any symptoms.
Between our monitoring of the situation, research and consultation with a member of the Muskoka’s pandemic response committee who has experience with the SARS threat, we’ve made the following decisions:
- It’s too early to decide to cancel MNM2020. (If it were scheduled for April, that would be different.) We plan to monitor the progress of the epidemic and its fast-changing realities, and make a decision closer to the Marathon date. Thus we are still accepting registrations.
- Because we would rather postpone than cancel altogether, we are looking into whether it will be possible to book a weekend and Monday at the Active Living Centre in the late fall.
- We suggest that writers keep fundraising, but with greater sensitivity to your protective donors’ financial situations than usual, as people will lose jobs temporarily or permanently.
- If we do go ahead with the Marathon in July and the virus is still active and spreading, we will take some extra hygiene precautions and make some new hygiene rules for everyone in the building. Linked here is a Covid-19 info sheet, co-written by our local consultant, which includes a list of hygienic precautions we will use for guidance.
We will keep you apprised of any changes or other plans we make as the situation develops.
On behalf of all the MNM2020 volunteers, we wish you and yours all the best especially continued GOOD HEALTH.
Karen Wehrstein & Colum McKnight,
Co-Convenors, Muskoka Novel Marathon 2020
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