![]() I think with the cases increasing as they are quite precipitously, and with the modelling that shows we're gonna have a very difficult exit from the holiday season and with Omicron on the horizon, I think we're actually looking at more public health measures," Dr. "I don't see the vaccine certificate going away from a medical perspective or a scientific perspective really within the next four to six months. Barry Pakes, York Region's medical officer of health, said he also would like to see some capacity restrictions back. The other part is we need to really speed up and message well the rollout of the third doses of our vaccines."ĭr. And capacity limits are absolutely one of the things that will need to be looked into relatively urgently. "If we want to get this under control, we need to because otherwise, again, we will have trouble with our health-care system being overwhelmed. If we want to deal with that, we need to do something with capacity limits," Jüni said. It won't change fundamentally the situation we're in with Omicron. "When we talked about schools, and we were very outspoken from the side of the science table that school should be the last resort to control the pandemic. Peter Jüni, the director of the science table, said moving back to Step 3 is a good idea, especially with Omicron expected to become the dominant variant in Ontario. On Tuesday, the Ontario Science Advisory Table released its updated COVID-19 modelling that projected ICU admissions will rise by January, putting the health-care system once again under significant strain.ĭr. ICU admissions in the province are also expected to increase in the coming weeks. The COVID-19 situation in Ontario schools is also worsening, with total cases since early September now exceeding 9,000. On Thursday, the province reported its highest single-day tally of new COVID-19 cases in more than six months, with 1,290. While the government plans to mainly stay the course, several health units have recently reinstated some pandemic measures to curb climbing cases, including capacity limits and work-from-home policies. Sources said the government decided to stick with the current measures and will instead focus on preparing new guidance during the Christmas break. The government was presented with several options, including closing schools before and after the winter break and a return to Step 3 of the reopening plan, which would reintroduce capacity limits in many settings like restaurants, bars and gyms. Sources said cabinet also met on Wednesday to discuss how to respond to increasing COVID-19 infections. While changes to the vaccine passport program will be considered, sources told CTV News that the Ford government is not planning to make other significant moves at this time. "We're planning to start lifting things but if this Omicron variant circulates widely and if it's as virulent as it has been in other jurisdictions, we are going to need to take a look at that," she said. On Monday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said that the vaccine certificate program will remain in place if the new Omicron variant ends up posing a threat to the public. The plan was developed before the Omicron variant of concern was detected. In October, the province unveiled its reopening roadmap that included the end of the vaccine passport system as early as Jan. There were also reports Thursday that the Ontario government will not move ahead with its plan to drop the vaccine passport system in mid-January. There have been calls for the government to end the paper copy of the vaccine receipt because it can easily be edited, providing unvaccinated people with a document that would allow them to enter settings that require proof of vaccination. Sources told CTV News that cabinet will consider a new measure that will eliminate the paper version of the province's vaccine passport and require all proof of vaccination to include a QR code. Premier Doug Ford is set to meet with his cabinet Friday to mull possible action over rising COVID-19 case counts, but school closures and lockdowns are not being considered, CTV News has learned.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |