With Ontario’s COVID-19 case numbers plateauing in recent weeks, Premier Doug Ford announced Friday afternoon the province’s new plan for gradually lifting remaining restrictions.
Beginning Monday, the province is lifting capacity limits on restaurants, gyms, indoor event spaces and other venues where proof-of-vaccination is currently required, and anticipates lifting proof-of-vaccination controls in some venues starting in the new year.
But, we’ve been here before. When Ontario lifted restrictions in early 2021, case numbers shot up. The same happened in Alberta over the summer.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try easing restrictions, said Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and associate professor in the University of Toronto’s department of medicine and school of public health.
“I think that now is a good time to cautiously open things up,” she said. Although opening up too quickly risks a resurgence in cases, opening things carefully and using tools like proof-of-vaccination requirements could be safe,” she said.
“When they’re opening up stadiums to 20,000-30,000 people with no spacing between, it really doesn’t justify keeping things like restaurants closed,” she said.
Mike Willis, a heart transplant recipient from Guelph, Ont., agrees.
“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “At the same time, even though I’m triple-vaccinated, my antibody levels are way lower than a lot of people who have had only one shot. With the anti-rejection meds I take, I have to be very careful and have been being careful for over six years or so.”
Limiting access to certain venues to only vaccinated people makes him feel better about reopening.
“If people are careful, we need it for the economy,” he said.
Others aren’t so sure reopening is a good idea right now.
Dr. Susy Hota, medical director of infection prevention and control for Toronto’s University Health Network, urges caution.
“Across Canada, we’re at 88 per cent or above that for first doses. So I think we’re heading towards a very nice-looking number for eligible populations,” she said.
Still, she noted, it’s hard to say exactly at what point herd immunity would kick in.
“What’s the magic number? Nobody really knows.”
1:49 COVID-19 capacity limits to be lifted for many businesses, events in B.C. on Oct. 25
COVID-19 capacity limits to be lifted for many businesses, events in B.C. on Oct. 25
When considering reopening, she thinks authorities would want to see a clear trend of declining case counts.
“If you’re just on the point of starting to step down on the curve, that’s too early. You would need to make sure that it continues in that trend because further reopening can spin you back up into exponential growth,” Hota said.
She also thinks that governments should make sure that hospital numbers have receded as well, and consider giving health-care workers “a breather” after a wave of cases, rather than potentially plunging them right into a new one.
Then there’s the unvaccinated, including some kids who aren’t yet eligible. Hota would prefer waiting a few weeks to see if vaccines for children aged 5-11 are approved before proceeding with reopening. Pfizer Canada has submitted its application for a COVID-19 vaccine for that age group, and Health Canada is currently examining it.
A statement from the Children’s Health Coalition, a group of children’s hospitals and medical providers, urges a “cautious approach” to reopening that “doubles down” on measures to protect school-aged children, including keeping community transmission of the virus down.
Dr. Don Vinh, an infectious diseases specialist and medical microbiologist at the McGill University Health Centre, isn’t sure that now is the time to start relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.
“It’s like a campfire,” he said. “There are some places where the flame is going and those people are in trouble. And there are some other places where the flame is dying or it’s only embers.”
The risk, he said, is that if you walk away from embers they can reignite. And if you reopen too quickly, you “invite the possibility of an increase in community transmission.”
“Why do a medical cha-cha? Why two steps forward and one step back?”
1:58 Vaccine passports doing more harm than good for some West Indian businesses in Toronto
Vaccine passports doing more harm than good for some West Indian businesses in Toronto
Banerji said that given Canada’s high vaccination rate, a slow reopening could work.
“I think having those vaccinations and having a vaccine passport allows people to engage in a way that we couldn’t last year,” she said.
Having school-aged children vaccinated will make a difference too, she said.
“I’m hoping that once they’re vaccinated, that most of society is opened up again, especially to people who are vaccinated. It would make sense.”
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
