Office of the Mayor and Council Update
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Tuesday, May 12 COVID-19 emergency
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Over the past week we’ve seen a shift towards the restoration of public life. And as Premier Doug Ford teased today, details on the first stage of Ontario's reopening plan will be coming this week.
“(We’ll have) more good news about getting people back to work, more good news about opening workplaces, getting paycheques out the door, more good news about slowly getting back to normal...We’ll be reopening more low-risk workplaces, seasonal businesses and essential services.”
Finance Minister Rod Phillips said the Provincial Government has asked all MPPs, including Oakville's Stephen Crawford and Effie Triantafilopoulos, to hold local consultations to seek feedback from local people and businesses as to their needs and concerns for re-opening.
All this is possible because we’re confident the healthcare system will not be overwhelmed, as it was in Lombardy, Italy and New York City.
The idea of herd immunity is one that’s still being debated amongst our top health care experts, but we do know that by getting ahead of the surge in the hospitals we protected a great many people from death.
As the economy begins to reopen and we look at Canada's death rate – 138.0 deaths per million and compare it to Sweden – 319.7 deaths per million – which took a different approach to COVID-19 you can see the difference our approach has made. Please refer to the deaths per million chart below.
In Sweden schools and restaurants remained open. And here, those both closed and remained closed for the time being. But we never had to go on a full lockdown like what we saw in Spain, Italy and the U.K. where people were only permitted to leave their homes for groceries. We can consider ourselves fortunate for that and as restrictions begin to ease we hope we can continue to keep our community safe.
Please continue to follow the rules as they've been set out. They are there for a reason and by acting together we can get through this faster. We see the light at the end of the tunnel as restrictions begin to lift and our case counts plateau and even drop, as is also shown in the deaths per million chart below.
To see how far we've come and a glimpse into where we are headed, scroll to the end of this email for the continually updated timeline.
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Items in this update:
- COVID case counts
- Testing up, positive cases down: Four charts that explain COVID-19 right now in Ontario
- As economy reopens, Ontario is missing crucial details about COVID-19 spread, epidemiologists warn
- COVID-19 Symptoms, therapies, and policy confusion
- Halton to receive funding to support the vulnerable
- Declaration of Emergency extended while Ontario gradually reopens the economy
- CNE cancelled for second time in 142-year history
- Ontario marks the first Provincial Day of Action on Litter
- Prime Minister announces additional support for Canadian seniors
- Increased border traffic likely as Canada, U.S. economies reopen
- Top doc states importance of following U.S. guidelines
- London looks to resume Premier League
- Coronavirus cases increase in South Korea
- India’s train service set to run limited service
- China presses ahead with re-opening measures
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Total confirmed cases in Halton have increased by 3 from 515 confirmed cases yesterday to
518
with
2
new confirmed cases in Oakville, from 176 at
178
. There were 0
recoveries in Oakville, leaving the total at
154
recoveries. There was one death in Milton reported.
Oakville's community transmission rate holds steady at 28 per cent.
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As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Ontario’s regional health units were reporting a total of 21,974 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19, including 1,779 deaths. Those totals represent 24-hour increases of 354 new cases — a low 1.6 per cent jump — and 47 new deaths, also below recent averages.
As for today, 70,342 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Canada with 5,049 deaths. 33,254 or 47 per cent of cases have recovered.
Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says the next phase of Canada’s COVID-19 response will involve testing people with a wider range of potential symptoms.Until recently, the government was asking people with mild symptoms to isolate at home without receiving a test. In order to get a better idea of who has the disease, Tam says Canada needs to start casting a wider net when it comes to who to test.
Dr. Tam says Canada is not going to see mass gatherings or non-essential travel any time soon. She says the new normal the country may be entering into as Canada starts reopening the economy will not look the same as it did last January. For example, you can expect to see more Plexiglas and social-distancing measures in stores and shops once they reopen.
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Testing up, positive cases down: Four charts that explain COVID-19 right now in Ontario
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Ontario health officials said Monday that a downward trend of new daily cases in the last week to 10 days was encouraging, but the data needed further exploration before the province could enter the next phase of the recovery.
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As economy reopens, Ontario is missing crucial details about COVID-19 spread, epidemiologists warn
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Ontario needs much more up-to-date data about the spread of COVID-19 in the community before the provincial economy can be fully reopened, epidemiologists warn.
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COVID-19 Symptoms, therapies, and policy confusion
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Ars Technica provides a roundup of some of the coronavirus developments of the past week.
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Deaths per million around the globe and close to home
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Halton to receive funding to support the vulnerable
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Halton Region is slated to receive a portion of $10 million in funding to provide direct support to vulnerable residents grappling with the impacts of COVID-19.
The financial boost, announced May 11, comes as part of a funding partnership between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Canadian Medical Association Foundation (CMAF). Halton is one of almost 70 recipients across the c
ountry to receive the funding, with further details to come from the FCM on the exact local allocation.
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The Ontario government is extending the Declaration of Emergency under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. This additional time will ensure the province has the necessary tools and health care capacity to contain COVID-19, while gradually reopening businesses, services, and amenities safely.
Passed during a special sitting of the Ontario Legislature today, the Declaration of Emergency has been extended until June 2. The declaration will allow Ontario to continue to enforce current emergency orders, such as restricting retirement and long-term care home employees from working in more than one facility and prohibiting events and gatherings of more than five people. Since the emergency was first declared on March 17, the government has taken over 150 actions to help protect individuals, families, and businesses from the impacts of COVID-19.
The House also passed the COVID-19 Response and Reforms to Modernize Ontario Act, 2020, which will help people conduct business while practising physical distancing by:
- Providing authority to address in-person attendance rules for school board trustees' meetings in regulation. This would provide the flexibility in certain emergency situations to allow trustees to meet virtually during school closures;
- Enabling corporations to call and hold meetings virtually, as applicable, and extending the time period in which annual meetings must be held in specific circumstances;
- Allowing designations of a beneficiary to be provided electronically for Retirement Savings Plans, Retirement Income Funds, Locked-in Retirement Accounts, Life Income Funds and Tax-Free Savings Accounts;
- Allowing electronic filing of business registration documents, and the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services to accept copies of business registration documents and e-signatures;
- Allowing for regulations to set out the parameters for remotely commissioning or notarizing a document;
- Extending, on a one-time basis for 2020, the legislated four-year period during which a Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) election is mandated to be held to give more time to support remote voting.
The Expenditure Estimates for the 2020-21 fiscal year were also tabled in the Legislature. This includes program spending to support the $17 billion announced as part of Ontario's Action Plan 2020: Responding to COVID-19 to ensure the province's health care system, communities, and economy are better positioned to weather challenges posed by the pandemic.
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CNE cancelled for second time in 142-year history
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The Canadian National Exhibition has been cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual summer spectacle joins a slew of large public events sidelined by the outbreak, which also forced the cancellation of Toronto's Pride Parade and Caribbean Carnival, the Calgary Stampede, live Canada Day events in Ottawa and music festivals across the country.
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Today Jeff Yurek, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks and Andrea Khanjin, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks released the following statement:
“Today is the first Provincial Day of Action on Litter in Ontario, a day when all Ontarians can raise awareness and take action to reduce litter and waste at home and in our communities.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, we have seen people across the province doing their part to combat the health crisis from home, or as essential service workers on the frontlines. These are extraordinary times with our focus entirely on staying safe and stopping the spread, but we must never forget the importance of preserving our environment.
When the time is right, our government will work with communities and our partners to organize litter clean-up days across the province. We know that Ontarians are eager to return outdoors, and this will be a great opportunity to reconnect with nature.
There are actions all of us can still take to put litter in its proper place while staying at home and physically distancing. Today, and every day individuals and families can reduce, prevent or divert waste, in the following ways:
- Choosing products with less packaging and replace single-use food wraps with reusable storage containers.
- Becoming experts in what goes in the green bin and blue box.
- For anything that does belong in the trash, such as disposable gloves and masks, making sure garbage bags are properly tied or sealed, to keep our neighbourhoods clean and safe.
Our government is working hard to meet our
Made in Ontario Environment Plan
commitment to keep our neighbourhoods, parks and waterways clean and free of litter and waste. We’re expanding green bin or similar collection systems, developing a proposal to ban food waste from landfills, and supporting safe food donation. We’ve also started the process of making producers responsible for the waste they create by managing the blue box program.
Businesses across the province are also stepping up to the challenge by opening package-free shops, developing eco-friendly products such as sustainable textiles, and reducing food waste by connecting surplus food to those in need.
The Provincial Day of Action on Litter is a reminder of the importance of our greenspaces and the role we all play in maintaining a cleaner, healthier Ontario for our communities and loved ones now and for future generations.”
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Prime Minister announces additional support for Canadian seniors
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The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced a series of additional measures to help Canadian seniors and provide them with greater financial security in this time of crisis. These measures include:
- Providing additional financial support of $2.5 billion for a one-time tax-free payment of $300 for seniors eligible for the Old Age Security (OAS) pension, with an additional $200 for seniors eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). This measure would give a total of $500 to individuals who are eligible to receive both the OAS and the GIS, and will help them cover increased costs caused by COVID-19.
- Expanding the New Horizons for Seniors Program with an additional investment of $20 million to support organizations that offer community-based projects that reduce isolation, improve the quality of life of seniors, and help them maintain a social support network.
- Temporarily extending GIS and Allowance payments if seniors’ 2019 income information has not been assessed. This will ensure that the most vulnerable seniors continue to receive their benefits when they need them the most. To avoid an interruption in benefits, seniors are encouraged to submit their 2019 income information as soon as possible and no later than by October 1, 2020.
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Increased border traffic likely as Canada, U.S. economies reopen
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Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada and the U.S. are working on plans to deal with what she calls an inevitable increase in cross-border traffic as economies in both countries emerge from their pandemic-induced comas.
Freeland says traffic over the shared border is bound to increase as states and provinces reopen shuttered businesses and ease restrictions on personal mobility, even if the current Canada-U.S. ban on non-essential travel remains unchanged.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will be very cautious when it comes to reopening international travel.
He would not say whether he expects the Canada-U.S. border to reopen when a mutual ban on non-essential travel expires next week. But rather he says preventing transmission of COVID-19 into Canada from other countries will be an essential part of preventing a second wave of the outbreak.He says Canada will need to see a decrease in the number of new cases in the country, and will need to have the ability to detect and track new cases.
Dr. Tam, meanwhile, is advising extreme caution when it comes to reopening the Canada-United States border.
She says Canada needs to see what happens when it eases its own public health measures to contain the virus before allowing foreign travel again. It will also depend on the international epidemiology. She says Canada should be looking carefully at the United States’ COVID-19 situation before allowing cross-border travel.
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Top doc states importance of following U.S. guidelines
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“The consequences could be really serious,” Fauci tells the Senate Health, Labor and Pensions committee. Problems will escalate if states do not have the hospital capacity to treat patients and to isolate people exposed to the virus.
“There is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances . . . you will see some cases appear,” as communities reopen, Fauci said. The guidelines are based on 14 days of gradually decreasing cases.
Fauci spoke by video conference to the hearing. He is self-quarantining after a White House staffer testified positive for the virus.
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London looks to resume Premier League
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan says he believes it is too early for the Premier League to be planning a resumption of the season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Premier League clubs Arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Tottenham and West Ham all play in the capital.
The mayor’s office says the league should resume only “when it is safe to do so.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that sports events in the country could resume in June if there is not a new spike in COVID-19 infections.
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Coronavirus cases increase in South Korea
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South Korea
has reported 27 new cases
as health workers work to test thousands of people who visited nightspots in Seoul after detecting dozens of infections linked to club goers.
Figures released by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought national figures to 10,936 cases and 258 deaths. Clubs in the capital region have been closed again after the outbreak, and the reopening of schools was pushed back to May 20.
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India’s train service set to run limited service
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India is set to run limited train service as the country looks at easing its nearly seven-week lockdown.
Special trains are departing Tuesday from select cities. Passengers must be asymptomatic and maintain social distancing on board. Indian Railways also mandated a government-run contact tracing app that has been criticized over civil liberties concerns. India’s rail, road and air services were suspended in late March as part of a nationwide lockdown.
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China presses ahead with re-opening measures
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China reported just one new coronavirus case Tuesday as the government presses ahead with reopening measures, including allowing Beijing middle school senior students to return to class and Shanghai Disneyland to open its gates again to a limited number of visitors.
Other measures have included permitting Beijing’s ancient Forbidden City to expand its visitor numbers, as long as they book online first, show evidence they are healthy and wear a mask while touring the massive complex that was home to generations of China’s emperors.
Also on Tuesday, the National Health Commission said 115 people remain in treatment and 763 are being isolated and monitored as either suspected cases or after testing positive for the virus without showing symptoms.
China has not reported a new death from the virus in almost a month. In total, it has recorded 4,633 deaths among 82,919 cases since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last year.
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The Virtual Adult Book Club meets every Wednesday at 6:30 pm. This week, they are discussing
The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata
.
Learn more about
upcoming sessions
Monday, May 11 • 12 pm
Let’s Talk About ... Books, Movies and More:
Fierce Women
This session, we're discussing our favourite books, movies, and podcasts that feature fierce women. These weekly virtual sessions explore different themes in arts, culture and literature.
Join us on
Zoom
(Meeting ID: 979 3115 3183) or call 1-647-558-0588.
Details
Tuesdays & Thursdays • 10 am
Family Storytime on Instagram Live
Get moving with stories, songs and fun during Family Storytime! Hosted virtually on Instagram Live. Follow
@oakvillelibrary on Instagram
.
Tuesdays & Thursdays • 2 pm
Kids Library Club
Join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays as we explore fun activities in the fields of science, technology, art and more! Tuesday's session is all about
Poetry
and Thursday will be
Hour of Code
(wait list only). Limited spaces.
Register
Wednesday, May 13 • 6:30 pm
Adult Book Club:
The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata
Join us every Wednesday for our Virtual Adult Book Club!
Join us on
Zoom
(Meeting ID: 979 5422 2073) or call 1-647-558-0588.
Details
Thursday, May 14 • 11 am
Let’s Talk About ... Books, Movies and More: Historical Fiction
This week, we'll discuss our favourite books, movies, podcasts, and more that relate to historical fiction! "Let's Talk About" are weekly, virtual sessions that explore different themes in arts, culture and literature.
Join us on
Zoom
(Meeting ID: 978 6552 4184) or call 1-647-558-0588.
Details
Fridays and Saturdays • 10 am
Family Storytime on YouTube
Follow
OPL on YouTube
and enjoy Family Storytime, both live and pre-recorded. On Fridays, we go Live at 10 am, and on Saturdays, we upload new, pre-recorded stories - both at 10 am, and by OPL staff. Remember to subscribe to our YouTube page so you don't miss out!
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Staff Book Recommendations on YouTube
Listen to over 100 short book reviews from OPL staff, uploaded weekly on
YouTube
.
Daily
Virtual Tech Help
Book a virtual one-on-one session for basic technology assistance. Limited sessions.
Register
Note:
Dates and times are subject to change without notice. Visit
opl.ca/programs
for up-to-date information.
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Food Banks experiencing record demand
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Oakville's food banks are in record-breaking demand. If you can donate anything, please do. Your help is needed.
Kerr Street Mission:
905-845-7485 or donate online at kerrstreet.com
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Oakville Meals on Wheels continues to operate
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Oakville Meals on Wheels continues to operate under increased safety measures. I
f you know or are aware of someone who is struggling, call 211 and get help to navigate the network of health, community and social service programs. This service is offered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and has interpretation for over 150 languages. And, if you are able, please consider supporting the Meals on Wheels effort by making a donation.
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Downtown Oakville Instagram live series
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On Wednesday, May 6 Downtown Oakville will be launching a weekly Instagram Live Series hosted by different Downtown businesses. The live events will allow you to purchase products, participate in fitness classes, attend workshops, and more!
Follow @oakvilledowntown on Instagram to learn more and tune in.
Schedule
May 13 at 7 p.m. - Hot Yoga and Pilates
May 20 at 7 p.m. - Fred Astaire Dance Studio
May 27 at 7 p.m. - Downtown Oakville Live Auction
June 3 at 2 p.m. - Lakeshore Yoga
June 10 at 1 p.m. - Makers Mojo
June 17 at 2 p.m. - Must Boutique
June 24 at 7 p.m. - Dr. Adrienne, Naturopathic Doctor
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Call the COVID-19 hotline
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For the duration of the pandemic, if a member of the public wishes to report an incident of non-compliance with the emergency orders, they may contact the Halton Regional Police Service COVID-19 Hotline: 905-825-4722
It is critical that our residents use 911 for emergencies only.
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