Ford eyes regional plan to reopen the economy

Ontario is investigating a regional approach to continuing the staged reopening of the economy, “now that our testing is getting to where we need it,” Premier Doug Ford announced Friday.

“The reality on the ground is different in every part of the province, and we’re now getting a much better picture of what each region is dealing with.”

According to data from the provincial Ministry of Health, twothirds of all confirmed cases in Ontario come from public health units in the Greater Toronto Area.

For weeks, the premier has repeatedly rejected the idea of a regional approach to easing pandemic restrictions. As recently as Thursday, Ford suggested Ontario’s medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, was not in support of the idea.

Asked Friday what had changed, Ford noted “this thing moves so quick … it’s so fluid, from day to day to day, you have to be ready to make the changes. I think the worst thing anyone could do in my position or any position is dig their heels in and not be open to ideas.”

Ontario is looking to expand COVID -19 testing into workplaces in the auto manufacturing, retail and food-supply sectors.

In fact, it has already been offering testing to LCBO workers at local assessment centres during the past week.

Starting next week, the province is planning testing in communities hit hard by COVID-19.

According to Dr. Dirk Huyer, Ontario’s chief coroner and the leader of its testing approach, work has been ongoing with Toronto and Peel public health officials to sketch out specifics.

“If the concern is in, say, a place of businesses … we’re going to work together to bring a team to the facility to do the swabbing within the facility,” Huyer said.

Ontario has expanded its testing capacity to 20,000 tests daily and is looking to increase that.

As of the past few days, more than 50 per cent of tests, on average, were producing completed results within a day, and 82 per cent were being turned around in two days or less.

Testing is now available to anyone in Ontario who’s concerned they might have been exposed to the virus. According to officials, you don’t have to substantiate that concern.

“The assessment centres are not judging your judgment on if you were at risk. If you feel that you have been at risk, and feel that you need that test, that test gets done,” said Matthew Anderson, president and CEO of Ontario Health. tblewett@postmedia.com