City shuts March Break camps, daycares, libraries; Mayor John Tory to self-isolate

Thestar.com
March 16, 2020
David Rider and Jennifer Pagliaro

Mayor John Tory put himself in isolation Friday as the country’s largest city grappled with the spreading coronavirus outbreak by shutting many city-run buildings and programs.

All city-run daycares, libraries, and community and recreation centres in Toronto will be closed until April 5, city officials announced Friday, while also cancelling all March Break camps run by the city.

The move came on the same day that Tory announced that he would go into self-isolation for 12 days after he travelled to London, England, as the city’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, recommended all residents who travel outside the country self-isolate for 14 days.

De Villa’s new “strong” recommendation about travel expands beyond the previously listed areas of Iran, Italy and Hubei, China.

“I am making these recommendations based on the available science and evidence, and in consideration of our local circumstances,” de Villa said at a press conference at city hall on Friday.

That includes, she said, that children often have “little or no signs or symptoms of infection” with COVID-19 and that there has been an increase in travel-related cases in Toronto.

“Most importantly, we need to mitigate the impact of this virus and help protect the health of our residents,” she said, acknowledging the recommendations would result in “significant adjustments” to residents’ regular routines and challenges for some citizens.

“Please know that I am not making these recommendations lightly,” she said.

Essential services like the TTC, shelters and long-term care homes will continue with visitation restrictions in place for long-term care homes. Emergency services, waste collection and road maintenance will continue uninterrupted.

City manager Chris Murray said the recommendation by Ontario’s medical officer of health on Friday to suspend gatherings of more than 250 people does not apply to mass transit.

The cancellations and closures impact thousands of Toronto children and their families.

There were 4,668 registrations in 214 March Break camps, the city said Friday.

The city licenses 1,058 daycare centres, run both by the city and privately operated, as well as 18 home agencies.

The city-run centres will be closed as of Saturday, Murray said Friday. De Villa is recommending but not ordering all other daycares close and parents are being advised to check with their provider.

More than 150 recreation centres will also be closed as of Saturday, meaning there will also be no classes or open recreation times at those facilities. All 100 library branches across the city will also be closed.

All city-operated greenhouses and conservatories, arenas, pools, fitness centres and ski hills will also be closed, as will city-operated museums and galleries. The Toronto Zoo will also be closed.

All event permits for city facilities, including civic centres, recreation facilities and parks between March 14 and April 5 are cancelled, with the city promising to process reimbursements “as soon as possible.”

Wedding ceremonies for civic centre wedding chambers will be honoured, Murray said.

Murray acknowledged the closure of libraries and other spaces that have become critical places for vulnerable populations to be safe and indoors, especially in winter months, would be difficult.

“I think what’s critically important right now is that we do everything, as the doctor points out, to mitigate the further spread of the virus,” Murray said.

The city has also cancelled all council and committee meetings as well as public consultations until April 5, which will delay the approval of policy items and other recommendations from staff that were planned for this monthly cycle. There were no meetings scheduled during March Break.

The recommendations come after the province on Thursday closed public schools for the two weeks following March Break and the recommendation of Ontario’s chief medical officer Dr. David Williams on Friday morning about large gatherings.

Tory said in an interview from his downtown condo that he knew self-isolation was a possibility and learned Friday afternoon de Villa’s “strong recommendation” would apply to him.

“At that stage I basically left city hall and came here,” the mayor said, adding he has no symptoms of illness and plans to work, thanks to phone and video technology, for the 12 days he will be cooped up.

Asked what he says to fellow travellers who feel fine and might question the need to isolate, he said: “I am feeling 100 per cent but health care experts explained to me how I can help flatten out the (infection frequency) curve by doing this.

“It’s a hardship, it’s a sacrifice, it’s uncomfortable, but we need to do it in the interests of the city.”

De Villa said that the “vast majority” of COVID-19 cases in the city are linked to travel outside Canada, and that there was no evidence yet of “significant or sustained” community transmission.

But “we should not be surprised to see that,” de Villa said, given the experience of other countries afflicted by the outbreak.

“In this rapidly evolving and extremely fluid situation, we are seeing an escalation of cases that are being brought into our city via travel,” de Villa said.

“We are moving more into what I would characterize as a mitigation approach to our current circumstances.”

The acknowledgement that the city had moved into a “mitigation” phase means that public health officials can no longer count on identifying, isolating, and contact tracing for every new case -- that the strategy would shift to one of blunting the rise of cases, and minimizing the spread of illness and its associated strain on the healthcare system.

Social distancing measures like the slew of shut-downs the city announced are the key tool in the outbreak-mitigation toolbox. In other countries social distancing has been highly effective in minimizing the rise of new COVID-19 cases, a strategy known as “flattening the epidemic curve” that gives the healthcare system a better chance of absorbing the mounting number of sick patients.

The closures in Toronto were in line with other municipalities in the region.

Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham and the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville are among a growing list of communities that will be closing their facilities for the next three weeks, effectively cancelling March Break camps, library programs, and shuttering community centres.

Markham Mayor, Frank Scarpitti, said he was launching a Markham Cares food drive, to support those families in the community who are not able to purchase groceries and supplies.