The Ford government plans to release a "comprehensive fall preparedness plan" in the wake of a recent rise in COVID-19 infections, CTV News Toronto has learned.
Government sources tell CTV News Toronto that a multi-pronged strategy is being finalized to deal with the surge in COVID-19 cases, the seasonal flu and the backlog in surgeries.
They say that the strategy will include the largest flu vaccination campaign in Ontario's history as well as new funding to boost hospital capacity, address the backlog in surgeries and strengthen protections in the long-term care home sector.
News of the plans comes as Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca calls on the Ford government to publicly release its strategies for combating a “potential second wave of COVID-19.”
In a news release issued earlier on Friday, Del Duca said that the plan should include the elimination of “unsafe waiting lines for COVID-19 testing” and “a strategy for non-essential inter-provincial travel restrictions, including border closures,” similar to the ones in effect in Atlantic Canada.
“This option needs to be on the table ... if it’s needed," Del Duca told CTV News Toronto on Friday.
Cases are on the rise
As the Ford government finalizes its plans on how to contain COVID-19 this fall and winter, transmission of the virus is indisputably on the rise.
On Friday, Ontario reported 213 new cases of COVID-19, its highest daily count since June 23.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases is also up to 176 after dropping as low as 85 in August.
Premier Doug Ford has so far ruled out rolling back elements of Ontario’s stage three reopening plan due to the rise in cases but he has said that he won’t stand in the way of local medical officers of health who want to introduce stricter measures in their communities.
He has also pointed out that infections are increasingly clustered in the Toronto and Ottawa areas and are not necessarily rising across the province.
Speaking with reporters during a news conference in Northern Ontario on Friday afternoon, Ford said that he believes the province “learned a lot” from the first wave of the virus and is “ready” for a possible resurgence, should it happen.
He said that unlike in the winter when the province needed to act quickly to acquire the necessary stockpiles of personal protective equipment, it is now “self-sufficient” with dozens of companies manufacturing face shields, surgical masks and gowns and other needed materials.
“We put into the education system 37 million PPE items. That is pretty incredible and I just want to thank the manufacturers that have stepped up when we called out for help,” he said. “There is nothing that we can’t produce here in Ontario or Canada with the ingenuity and the technology and just the manpower we have.”
With files from CTV News Toronto's Colin D'Mello
