Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie, who just days ago was asking that her city be allowed to progress into the red zone without the rest of Peel Region, is now fearing that rising COVID-19 case numbers will spell out another stay-at-home order for Mississauga, neighbouring Brampton and potentially the rest of the province.

Crombie feels as if the order would likely be region-wide, she told insauga.com, but that it could also be like the widespread shutdown we saw implemented for all of Ontario on Boxing Day.

"We see regions moving in the wrong direction," she told the news outlet, referencing the fact that a number have had to move from more open coloured zones into more prohibitive ones lately, and that some have even the emergency brake pulled. "It is something they are watching very closely, it could happen."

Crombie's worries are that Peel, which is already in the grey zone with an amendment allowing patio dining, would be put back under something even more locked down than grey, like the provincial shutdown it just emerged from on March 8, which included a formal stay-at-home order from Premier Doug Ford.

It was on March 10 that Crombie said in a presser "we've done a great job here in Mississauga, keeping the numbers down, keeping on top of the guidelines and taking the advice of public health. I think we deserve to open in red."

She now says the thought of having to be locked down further when her city was so close to the red zone — in which gyms, salons, indoor dining, and other business operations can reopen — is "oppressing."

Meanwhile, the region's Medical Officer of Health has expressed concern over infection rates amid the third wave, and has indicated that things are pretty touch and go, with numbers being assessed on a day-by-day basis to determine whether further measures should be implemented.

The most recent data from the province shows a new daily case count of 309 in Peel on March 23, compared to 253 one week prior. Incidence rate per 100,000 people in the highest in Peel than any region in the province, and has slowly risen from 4,025.8 on March 16 to 4,164.7 on Saturday.