Whitmer: COVID-19 cases could be dropping
TORONTO » Ontario’s premier retracted restrictions Saturday that banned playgrounds and allowed police to require anyone not at home to explain why they’re out after a backlash from police forces, health officials and the public.
The pandemic restrictions imposed by Canada’s most populous province immediately ran into opposition as police departments insisted they wouldn’t use new powers to randomly stop pedestrians or motorists and health experts complained the rules focus on outdoor activities rather than more dangerous indoor settings.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford ‘s government announced Friday it was giving police authority to require anyone not at home to explain why they’re out and provide their address. Tickets can be written.
But Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said Saturday officers will no longer have the right to stop any pedestrian or vehicle to ask why they are out or request their home address.
But Jones said police may require a person to provide information to ensure they are complying with restrictions if the officer has reason to suspect the person is participating in an organized public event or social gathering,
Earlier at least a dozen police forces throughout Ontario, including in the capital of Toronto, said there will be no random stops of people or cars.
“We are all going through a horrific year of COVID-19 and all associated with it together. The (department) will NOT be randomly stopping vehicles for no reason during the pandemic or afterwards,” Halton Police Chief Steve Tanner tweeted.
Ford’s Friday announcement limited outdoor gatherings to those in the same household and closed playgrounds and golf courses. The decisions sparked widespread criticism in a province already on lockdown. Restaurants and gyms are closed as is in-class schooling. Most nonessential workers are working from home.
On Saturday, Ford retracted an initially announced ban on playgrounds, but added that the ban on “gatherings outside will still be enforced,” Ford tweeted.
Ford complained about crowded parks and playgrounds, but at Friday’s new conference did not mention workplaces considered essential, such as factories, where the virus is spreading
“What we need: increased restrictions to reduce indoor contact, supports for frontline essential workers, paid sick leave, a re-prioritized vaccine rollout for hard-hit communities,” tweeted Joe
Cressy, who is on Toronto’s city council.
“What we got: the closure of outdoor amenities, which we need to keep people safe and healthy.”
“I have yet to intubate a COVID patient who had become infected from being in a playground,” tweeted Dr. Ian Preyra, who works at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ontario.
“Warehouse worker, truck driver, construction worker ... not one of my COVID patients today acquired this at the park. They are angry and they have no voice. Shameful,” tweeted Dr. Aman Sidhu, a lung doctor in Toronto.
Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto, said that closing playgrounds and other outdoor recreation facilities “will hurt the very kids and their families whose well-being we have already damaged by being forced to close schools.”
LANSING » After leading the nation’s COVID-19 daily case rate for weeks, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Sunday that Michigan could be seeing a drop in infections.
Whitmer has extended a pandemic order that limits business capacity and requires masks in public, but the Democrat has avoided further restrictions in place during previous surges, including suspending indoor restaurant dining. Instead, she’s urged a voluntary pause on the activities and pushed for more vaccinations from the White House, which has said it would help with other logistics but continue allocating based on population.
“We are starting to see, you know, the beginning of what could be a slowdown, which is welcome,” Whitmer told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But what also is welcome is we’ve gotten a lot of help from the Biden administration to surge some therapeutics here, get some boots on the ground, and I think all of these things are really going to be important to us stemming the tide of what we’re seeing.”
She didn’t discuss specific data and Michigan doesn’t release coronavirus-related data on Sundays. Health officials said Friday that the seven-day average positivity rate had dropped in recent days to 17.1%, but remained above a December peak of 14.4%.
Michigan has reported more than 785,000 COVID-19 cases and logged more than 16,800 deaths. The state says nearly 30% of Michigan residents ages 16 and older have been fully vaccinated.