If the COVID-19 situation continues to deteriorate, hair salons and other personal care shops in Toronto might not reopen as planned on April 12, Mayor John Tory said Monday.
“The numbers are not getting better, they’re getting worse,” said Tory, speaking from city hall on Monday. “It compels all of us to examine these things on a day-to-day basis, as we’ve done continuously.”
He added that discussions will be held closer to the proposed reopening date.
On Friday, Ontario officials announced that hair salons, nail salons, personal care and body art shops are slated to reopen — by appointment only and with capacity limits — on April 12 in lockdown zones including Toronto and Peel.
Premier Doug Ford said the changes come despite worsening COVID-19 trends — with daily cases now at levels not seen since January — because Ontarians are “tired” of the pandemic. He also warned people not relax anti-virus precautions.
Tory, who with public health chief Dr. Eileen de Villa provides advice to provincial officials on Toronto’s COVID-19 regulations, said he makes no apologies for advocating caution, rather than risk a return to a tighter lockdown or overwhelming the health-care system.
The mayor said that, based on advice about transmission risk from de Villa and other health experts, he does not have the same concerns over outdoor fitness classes, also slated to resume April 12, or outdoor dining, which restarted March 20.
Ontario on Monday recorded the fifth straight day of more than 2,000 new COVID-19 infections. Variants of concern, which are more transmissible than the original strain, are driving the resurgence.
De Villa reported Monday that Toronto had 618 new cases of COVID-19. That brought the seven-day average for Toronto to 538 new daily infections, up from 321 on March 1.
The vaccination rate is also increasing, with two new city-run immunization clinics open Monday — at Malvern Community Recreation Centre and Mitchell Field Arena — with appointments available for anyone born in 1951 or earlier.
But de Villa recently warned that vaccinations alone likely won’t halt the rising third wave of infections, urging Torontonians to continue precautions including distancing, masking and staying at home as much as possible.
Also during Monday’s update, Tory said the city is working with provincial health authorities through Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) in an effort to get homebound people vaccinated.
Th emayor said there are about 3,500 such people in central Toronto who receive chronic home care and aren’t able to visit a clinic. They will be eligible to be vaccinated in their homes, through provincial home-care providers working with Toronto EMS.
Toronto resident Ann Fitzpatrick says her homebound 95-year-old father has been trying to get vaccinated for weeks, without success.
“My fear is that this could take until July to finish if the city and LHINs don’t make it a priority,” Fitzpatrick said in a letter to Tory, shared with the Toronto Star.
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Also on Monday, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area mayors and chairs issued a statement urging the federal and provincial governments to work together to ensure reliable and increased supplies of vaccines in their region — one of the COVID-19 hot spots in the province — and other similarly hard-hit areas.
“Our best public health advice is we need to have as much vaccines as possible right now in order to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Tory said.
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