‘PLEASE BE PATIENT’
City, a hot spot for cases, to remain in Stage 1 as regions move to reopen
Premier Doug Ford announced that regions around the GTA can move to the second stage of reopening later this week — except Toronto and Peel Region, two epicentres of the outbreak. And despite Toronto Public Health reporting fewer cases in the past four days, experts say the delay is ‘reasonable given our current circumstances’
The experts agree: The government was right in deciding that Toronto and Peel region should not be able to join the rest of the province in moving into the second stage of reopening.
The Ontario government announced Monday that most of the remaining regions still in the first stage of the province’s reopening plan would be able to move into Stage 2 as of this Friday. This includes GTA regions of Halton, Durham and York. Toronto and Peel — which continue to produce the bulk of Ontario’s new COVID-19 cases — as well as Windsor-Essex will remain for now in Stage1, which allows for retail businesses with storefront entrances to be open.
Regions in Stage 2 can have restaurant patio dining and allow hairdressers and other personal-care services to operate, among other things.
“I do think this is the correct approach,” said physician epidemiologist Dr. Nitin Mohan, a partner at ETIO Public Health Consultants.
“If we look at the case counts in Ontario — and a reminder that that’s just one indicator and that there are other equally important indicators — the majority of cases are in Peel and Toronto. In theory we should be able to open up other regions safely.”
So when could Toronto and Peel get to Stage 2? Infection control epidemiologist Colin Furness said if it was up to him, he’d like to know where exactly in those two regions the new cases are coming from, and what is their association: Are they mostly linked to the airport? To long-term-care homes? To other places of employment?
“This huge question about whether Toronto and Peel are ready to go to Stage 2 I think depends entirely on that,” he said. “I’m a little blind as to what the situation is and I worry that the province is a little blind, too.”
Considering that Toronto and Peel remain in Stage1with most of the province’s new COVID-19 cases, other regions in the GTA should have also remained at the first stage given their proximity, said Dr. Gerald Evans, a Queen’s University medical professor and chair of the division of infectious diseases.
“I think you have to be very careful in a geographically localized area like the GTA and opening up parts of it and not other parts. I think that’s a recipe for having problems,” he said.
“If you’re opening segments of the GTA it’s not hard to go from Stage 1 and hop in your car and drive to an area that’s in Stage 2, and yet you’re coming from an area where that circulation of the virus is still consistently higher than it is in those other areas.”
He said it will be important for businesses to screen clients for COVID-19 symptoms — regardless of the stage their region finds itself in — such as a hairdresser calling a client a day before their appointment to see if they have any symptoms. Masks are also crucial. “The data is beyond irrefutable at this point that masks are quite effective at curbing transmission of the disease,” Mohan said. He added that clear, consistent messaging will also be important, on things like Ontario allowing individuals to create social “circles” of up to 10 people without the need to be physically distant.
Furness said that everyone who can wear a mask should have to wear one in indoor public spaces and that he would recommend continuing to impose a limit of just one person per household being able to go to the store.
Masks should also have to be worn in elevators and, better yet, those who are able should be encouraged to take the stairs, Furness said.
“We really do need some good stern messaging about vigilance. This ain’t over, so I think we really need to temper the loosening of measures with a really stark reminder: Masks matter, and the evidence keeps on accumulating that masks are really important,” Furness said.
And even if personal-care services are allowed to reopen under Stage 2, Furness said only those with access to adequate personal protective equipment should be able to do so given the fact that staff would be coming into proximity with strangers’ faces all day.
Finally, if more businesses are going to reopen, the province must restore paid sick days for all workers, Furness said. The provision was brought in by the previous Liberal government but abolished by the Conservatives in 2018.
“The province can pay for this, it’s a lot cheaper to pay people to stay home when sick than to deal with an outbreak,” Furness said.