There is a push to take Ontario’s lockdown a step further.
Medical Officers of Health in Toronto, Ottawa and Peel want Premier Doug Ford to impose a provincewide stay-at-home order.
The request comes after the province reported over 6,000 new cases of COVID-19 over the last two days.
They also suggest a need for travel restrictions between certain regions of the province, and schools in areas of outbreaks moved to online learning.
The Ontario Medical Association backs the need for a stay-at-home order.
The OMA says the province needs to implement the strictest level of public health measures to avoid more people from becoming sick or dying.
We are all in danger from COVID-19 â medical experts on what Ontario must do right now
Live at noon on Thursday Dr. Samantha Hill, president of the Ontario Medical Association, and Dr. Amit Arya, a palliative care physician at McMaster University and the University of Toronto, describe what they see as the most urgent actions the province needs to take to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Apr 06, 2021 4:44 PM ET | Last Updated: April 6
Hundreds of hospital and long-term care workers in northern Ontario have declined to get the COVID-19 vaccine so far. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Right now Dr. Samantha Hill, president of the Ontario Medical Association, says we are all in danger. We must implement our strictest level of public health measures.
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Ottawa’s medical officer of health has spoken out to stress the need for further pandemic restrictions, including a provincewide stay-at-home order, to stem the spread of COVID-19 and more threatening variants of the virus as pressure mounts on the health-care system. Vaccines mean hope is on the horizon, but Dr. Vera Etches says stronger action is needed to save lives in the interim.
Etches is not yet moving to close schools, as her Peel-region counterpart did Monday. She told this newspaper that Ottawa is still not seeing a lot of in-school transmission, and reiterated the importance of keeping them open to the extent possible, for the sake of students and families.
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TORONTO Ontario is expected to announce a 28-day province-wide “shutdown” Thursday to stop the spread of COVID-19 as an alarming spike in cases threatens the critical care system, The Canadian Press has learned.
A source with knowledge of the restrictions discussed at a cabinet meeting Wednesday night said the final details of the new measures will be worked out Thursday morning.
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Try refreshing your browser, or Ontario premier Doug Ford to lock down the entire province as COVID-19 spikes Back to video
The new steps would still allow both essential and non-essential retailers to remain open, albeit with occupancy limits, and schools will remain open after the Easter weekend. and not be closed ahead of a spring break slated for April 12, said the CBC, citing unnamed sources.
TORONTO An Ontario emergency-room physician is calling on the province to offer second-dose protection to front-line health-care workers sooner rather than later as cases of the highly-contagious COVID-19 variants climb. “Is that enough, to say one dose is good enough?” Dr. Laura Shoots told CTV News Toronto. “I think it just highlights how little the province cares about our healthcare workers and their safety.” Shoots highlights the case of a colleague, a fellow emergency room doctor who caught the virus from a patient three weeks after he received his first dose of the vaccine. Although the first dose of the vaccine has been demonstrated to offer significant protection, there is still some risk of contracting COVID-19.