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Premier Doug Ford recently declared a provincial emergency and announced a stay-at-home order; however, if prolonged, this will have severe effects on the livelihoods and mental health of all residents of this province.
To reduce the lockdown period, Ford should also increase border travel restrictions especially with new, more infectious variants. He should set up additional self-isolation centres, and paid sick leave for essential workers, especially physicians, nurses, and other health professionals. As Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, warned, “The vaccine in the short term is not going to make any difference.” The unexpected Pfizer-BioNTech supply shortage underscores the urgent need to implement these other measures.
Some Ontario nurses no longer paid during self-isolation if they test negative after COVID-19 exposure
Nurses in Hamilton and Niagara hospitals aren’t being paid for self-isolation time if they test negative after being exposed to COVID-19. Advocates are calling on the province to reinstate a benefit from the pandemic’s first wave that did pay employees sent home.
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Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced plans on Monday to open 500 new hospital beds – including those inside an entire soon-to-open facility north of Toronto – as the government scrambles to head off a surge of COVID-19 that threatens to overwhelm the province’s intensive-care units.
With the province already moving critical patients by ambulance helicopters from hard-hit hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area to as far away as Kingston to the east, hospitals and medical experts welcomed the added capacity. Hospital officials have warned that rising numbers could soon force them to make difficult life-and-death decisions if ICUs are overrun.
Ontario ordered residents to stay home and declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as grim projections indicated soaring COVID-19 cases could overwhelm the…