Re: Ontario’s #COVID19 numbers:

1) Reopening will come with an increased rate of infection. That is inevitable. But the purpose of the lockdown was never to beat the virus - it was to give our hospitals time to prepare. The question is: are they ready?

/1 #onpoli

2) It is possible @fordnation and @celliottability will have to look at tightening restrictions in Toronto/GTA while simultaneously easing restrictions in the rest of the province. This might have to include restrictions on travel.

People living in communities with...

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...few-to-no remaining cases won’t accept a continued shutdown mandate simply b/c things still aren’t under control in Toronto. See also: Quebec vs. Montreal.

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3) Clarity from public health officials would be nice. To-date we’ve heard:

“You aren’t at risk of catching COVID-19 just from walking past someone”;

“You’re safer outdoors and in well-ventilated spaces”;

“Keep distancing if possible, but masks are good if you can’t.”

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The result: lots of people congregating in public parks, keeping a respectful distance from each other but not being afraid to walk past one another.

At grocery stores, people are getting less diligent re: directional arrows and passing each other in aisles.

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Some clear public health advice could straighten this out. Should we be afraid of passing one another in parks? If someone else shares an elevator with me for 20s, is that a disaster?

And for the politicians: what is the objective we’re trying to achieve here?

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4) Contact tracing seems to be our big weakness right now. If we’re going to open up further, it seems logical that we’ve gotta know where infection is occurring, and we have to be quick about isolating close contacts of the infected. Nothing can move forward otherwise.

7/7