City toughens mandatory virus orders
Top doctor says measures aimed at reducing outbreak’s spread will be in place for 12 weeks
After being briefed on provincial modelling, Toronto public health officials say the city risks mass deaths unless dire measures are taken for the next 12 weeks.
Toronto’s medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa announced new orders Wednesday morning, including mandatory home quarantine for people with COVID-19 and anyone who has had close contact with someone infected.
That came ahead of new reporting from Toronto Public Health that there have been 19 COVID-19-related deaths in the city — up 11 since the previous day.
Toronto officials, including de Villa, acknowledged they were imposing the new orders after seeing Ontario’s COVID-19 modelling, but referred specific questions about the projected outbreak numbers to provincial officials — who refused to detail those projections despite repeated questions on Wednesday.
At a press conference at city hall, unusually timed to preempt provincial updates scheduled for later in the day, de Villa outlining the growth in Toronto cases — more than 500 per cent in the last two weeks — and said she is now doing everything in her legal power to help prevent further spread.
“This is not a favourable trajectory,” she said. “And as your medical officer of health responsible for protecting the city’s health — your health — I am deeply concerned.”
Coun. Joe Cressy, the chair of the city’s board of health, said Wednesday that he, Mayor John Tory and others had been briefed Saturday by Toronto’s top medical officials on the state of the virus in the city and the “potential forecast for the future based on provincial modelling.”
“Based on that briefing, we believe there is a fierce urgency of now to implement immediate measures if we are going to stop the unnecessary loss of life and preserve the integrity of our health-care system,” he said.
Asked if he was worried, Cressy said: “I think we have a narrow window upon which Toronto and our province can prevent significant loss of life and I cannot stress the importance of going hard and going now, which is what the city announced today.”
Premier Doug Ford refused to discuss the specifics of the modelling numbers on Wednesday.
“There’s different models … If we pick one model over another it sends two different messages,” he told reporters.
“Those models can drastically, drastically change. If we underestimate on one side and we overestimate on the other, and create a panic if we overestimate. But the facts are very clear. We’re going through turbulent waters. We’ve been saying it over and over again: make sure that you don’t congregate.”
The new orders and recommendations from de Villa will be in force for the next12 weeks, until June 24. They are:
All individuals with COVID-19 must stay home under the Health Protection and Promotion Act for 14 days. The same order is issued for anyone who has close contact to somebody infected.
Anyone who is not ill or has not travelled is strongly directed to stay home, except for the following reasons: accessing health-care or medication; shopping for groceries once per week; walking their dogs; getting daily exercise while maintaining physical distancing of at least two metres.
People returning from international travel must stay home, in accordance with an existing federal order.
Anyone over the age of 70, as the province announced this week, is strongly encouraged to stay home as much as possible
Increased supports for selfisolation for those experiencing homelessness, only essential businesses staying open, and increased cleaning and active screening of employees of all businesses.
De Villa highlighted the growth of infections in Toronto over the past month, from 102 confirmed cases and 43 probable cases on March 18 to yesterday with 628 confirmed cases, another 165 probable infections with 65 people in hospital, 33 of them in intensive care.
That number increased to 653 confirmed cases on Wednesday.
De Villa said she will ask the provincial government to further reduce the kinds of businesses that are allowed to remain open. Ford warned Wednesday the list of businesses allowed to be open would change.
“If we do not take these actions today, the city will see substantially increased loss of life, and may not begin to recover, economically and as a society, until the end of 2020,” the city said in a news release.
As de Villa spoke, Ontario’s chief medical officer announced he is “strongly urging” other municipalities to follow Toronto’s lead. Local public health leaders should invoke a law allowing them to issue orders restricting the movements of COVID-19 patients and their contacts, said Dr. David Williams.