If you haven't already made yourself comfortable at home, you can expect that social distancing and self-isolation measures will continue in Toronto for at least another three months.
Toronto's medical officer of health, Dr. Eilen de Villa, said today during a press conference that there's a good chance social distancing measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 may remain in place for "up to 12 weeks."
Dr. de Villa gave a rundown of several enhanced measures that include encouraging residents to continue to stay home and only go outside to access healthcare, shop for groceries once a week, and walk pets or get exercise while maintaining physical distancing of at least two metres.
"Based on the experiences of other jurisdictions, it if my belief that these measures may need to be in place for up to 12 weeks," she said.
"But I would tell you that how long these measures need to be in place, how successful we are in controlling virus spread, is entirely in our hands," she continued.
"The more we are able to put these measures into place.... the shorter will be the duration of these measures [and] the more effective we will be, most importantly, at reducing the loss of lives in our community."
Our public health professionals believe the additional actions being announced today – locking the city down as much as the municipal government possibly can – will save lives, flatten that curve down, and bring this wave of the #COVID19 pandemic to an end as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/4zt7witqYH
— John Tory (@JohnTory) April 1, 2020
During the press conference conference, a graphic flashed on screen that reiterated Dr. de Villa's message.
"The more we as Torontoians, can rally together, for the next 12 weeks, to comply to the measures, the more we we can make it through this challenge and protect our loved ones," it read.
Dr. de Villa went on to note that adhering to the measures also increases the likelihood of successfully preserving and protecting healthcare services and reducing the impact on the economy.
With 793 cases of COVID-19 in Toronto as of March 31 at 1 p.m., Dr. de Villa stressed that "again, the goal of all these measures is to reduce the loss of life."
by Lisa Power via blogTO
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