Protecting hospitals, closing strip clubs and getting re-elected: Your Ontario COVID-19 roundup

By Jessica Smith Cross and Sneh Duggal

Restrictions added as cases rise

Ontario bars and restaurants will have to close at midnight with an 11 p.m. last call — and strip clubs will be closed — according to new public health restrictions announced Friday.

Businesses and organizations will also be required to comply with any advice, recommendations, and instructions issued by the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health on screening for COVID-19, including screening individuals who wish to enter their premises, Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott announced.

"I don't think it's the end of the world people stop drinking at 11 p.m. and close it down at 12 (a.m.), it's precautionary measures moving forward," said Ford.

The announcement comes after a public plea for greater restrictions from a group of high-profile doctors backed by the Ontario Hospital Association, who warned that without additional restrictions soon a full shutdown would become necessary.

Ford said the province will be rolling out modelling information next week showing different potential scenarios.

In the meantime, modelling of Ontario's second wave by researchers affiliated with the University of Toronto, the University Health Network and Sunnybrook Hospital, shows different scenarios that would see cases peak in October or November, with the worst-case "Italy" scenario overwhelming the health-care system.

Procedure backlog

Ford and Elliott also announced $741 million to help clear the backlog of surgeries and create health-system capacity for the fall.

That includes $283.7 million to pay for priority surgeries including cancer, cardiac, cataract, and orthopedic procedures, extending diagnostic imaging hours, adding an additional 139 critical care beds and 1,349 additional hospital beds in hospitals and "alternate health facilities" such as field hospitals.

The province also plans to create a centralized surgical wait-list to optimize the use of the operating rooms and take full advantage of the available surgical capacity in each region, Elliott announced.

Another $457.5 million is going to home and community care, to help reduce pressure on the acute care system.

The resumption of scheduled surgeries in recent months was based on a framework the government released in May and that hospitals needed to follow. It included the need for hospitals to see a "stable" number of COVID-19 cases within the facility and a "manageable level of disease burden" in the community.

Hospitals also needed to ensure they had a "stable supply" of medications and personal protective equipment ("a rolling 30-day stock" of PPE on-hand), "adequate capacity" of in-patient and ICU beds (reserving 15 per cent capacity) and availability of post-procedural care outside of the hospital such as rehabilitation or home care.

According to a memo from Ontario Health President Matthew Anderson updating the policy in June, hospitals would need to reserve 10 per cent of acute care capacity "subject to any alternate agreement at the regional or sub-regional tables for securing sufficient regional capacity." Anderson stressed that this doesn't include care in hospital hallways. As for PPE, hospitals need to have at least 15 days of stock available at their facility, with a "30-day backstop with the region or sub-region."

Even though the framework was released in early May, hospitals weren't officially allowed to ramp up scheduled surgeries and procedures until May 26 when Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams amended a directive that initially required "all non-essential and elective services (to) be ceased or reduced to minimal levels."

Save Main Street again

The NDP released an updated version of its Save Mainstreet plan on Friday, outlining the steps leader Andrea Horwath says she would be taking if she were the premier.

It's focused on keeping people working for small and medium-sized businesses, particularly women.

"If we deliver on economic security, economic stability for households, for middle-class families, then they will definitely drive Ontario's economic recovery," said Horwath. "Especially working women — I mean, let's face it, we are not going to have a recovery without a she-covery in Ontario."

• Ban all evictions, lockouts or eviction threats by commercial landlords, until the pandemic ends
• Freeze utility payments for small and medium-sized businesses
• Create a new, stand-alone emergency 75 per cent commercial rent subsidy, up to $10,000 per month
• A fund for businesses that face historic barriers
• Establish a safe reopening and remote-work set up fund for small and medium-sized businesses
• Create a paid sick days plan
• Cap class sizes and school bus capacity
• Create more, safer non-profit and public child care spaces
• Create a dedicated retraining fund and an "Office to Advance Women Apprenticeship"
• Institute an auto-insurance grace period for taxis and car-sharing drivers
• Stop insurance companies from denying coverage based on COVID-19, and stop insurance companies from denying business interruption claims
• Mandate commercial vehicle insurance rebates
• Limit food delivery fees

COVID-19 in colleges and universities

On Sept. 14, Minister of Colleges and Universities Ross Romano was asked whether the government would launch a website showing COVID-19 cases connected to universities and colleges, similar to its website for COVID-19 cases in schools and child-care centres.

"I’m happy to look further into that. I don’t want to commit to something that potentially may be contrary to what specific board provisions are at those particular schools," Romano said at the time, citing the "autonomy of the institutions" and adding that such information has been released by individual public health units.

Asked by QP Briefing on Sept. 25 whether there had been any movement on his promise to look into the issue, Romano seemed to suggest that such a website is not in the cards.

He repeated his statement on post-secondary institutions being autonomous, going on to say "the province does support our institutions with elements of funding, but we do not direct how our institutions should operate, so that is a decision that each individual institution can take, and I will leave that to each individual institution at this point."

Romano went on to plead with students to "take the process seriously" and "follow the rules."

"Please distance from each other. I know everybody wants to go have some fun, I know you want to get together, it’s not unusual to want to get together and have a drink or a beer, socialize, playoffs are on, you want to watch the game, or you haven’t seen friends in a really long time, but we’re seeing what happens when you don’t the rules, we’re seeing what happens when you don’t wear your masks, we’re seeing what happens if you’re not keeping a distance from each other," said Romano.

This comes as the Middlesex-London Health has declared two outbreaks associated to Western University students.

Asked whether it was a good idea to let students live on campus at post-secondary institutions this fall, Romano said the screening processes and other processes that are in place "are working" and that they've been able to catch some of the COVID-19 cases "right at the door."

The COVID-19 re-election pitch

Meanwhile, Ford confirmed a Toronto Star story that said the Progressive Conservatives are renominating their sitting MPPs as candidates for the next election this weekend. He said it is part of the normal political process and flatly denied he will call an early election, as some of his premier peers have done.

He also gave a sneak preview of his re-election pitch: "We have a clear mandate from the people of Ontario, and people will have a very clear decision. They'll have a decision about leadership. What party is able to get them through this pandemic? Who do they have confidence in getting the economy back up and running, like we did when we inherited an absolute disaster when we took over?"

After Ford's comments, Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca took a swing at him for focusing on politics during the pandemic, for which he was cast as a hypocrite by at least two of the premier's staffers, as Del Duca's party was the first to begin the nominations process.

Don’t you have candidate nomination meetings tomorrow and Tuesday? #onpoli https://t.co/PMja9bMlOu

— Cody Matthew Welton (@codymwelton) September 25, 2020

Good lord.

First, @AndreaHorwath criticized touring the province days before launching a province-wide tour.

Now, @StevenDelDuca is criticizing candidate nominations while he himself is nominating candidates.

Hypocrisy, it seems, is contagious. https://t.co/Ox4bQxEFnf

— Travis Kann (@traviskann) September 25, 2020