'We should brace for an extended period of potentially unsettling and discouraging numbers in terms of COVID-19 infections’
New safety measures will be implemented for workplaces in Toronto following the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
Toronto Public Health will announce additional actions meant to reduce risks associated with the virus, according to Eileen de Villa, Toronto's chief medical officer of health.
In November, employers in Toronto were told that staff should implement work from home wherever possible.
“These steps by Toronto Public Health are meant to create as much distance and safety as possible, while respecting many people need to work and many businesses are rightly permitted to continue operations in order to provide the goods and services we all need in daily life.”
Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates previously urged the Ontario government to disclose which employers have COVID-19 outbreaks, arguing transparency is crucial in saving lives.
As of Jan. 2, Toronto has had 63,003 registered COVID-19 cases overall, with 394 people currently hospitalized, 1,961 deaths and 54,554 recovered.
“We’ve seen a 55-per-cent increase in the seven-day moving average for hospitalizations since Nov. 8… The level of infection is such that every neighbourhood in Toronto meets the province’s criteria for red zone designation,” says de Villa.
These numbers, however, do not reflect the cases that may have resulted from people celebrating over the holidays, as cases are generally confirmed about one or two weeks after infection.
From Dec. 14 to 20, 21 per cent of respondents to Toronto Public Health’s online case survey reported gathering in a private home and with people who weren’t members of their household.
“Our fear is these results in fact underestimate the degree to which people are mixing over the holidays,” she says. “It is now reasonable that we should brace for an extended period of potentially unsettling and discouraging numbers in terms of COVID-19 infections in Toronto.”
Twenty per cent of COVID-19 infections among working-age adults in Ontario can be attributed to workplace transmission, according to a report from the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) released in September.
