Toronto closes playgrounds to curb spread of COVID-19

Thestar.com
March 26, 2020

Amid Toronto’s biggest one-day jump in COVID-19 deaths and people ignoring pleas to stop mingling, the city is closing more than 800 playgrounds and hundreds of other park amenities.

Issued Wednesday on the recommendation of Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s public health guardian, the order will see locked gates, tape and signs warning Torontonians they face prosecution and fines for using playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, dog parks, outdoor gardens and more.

Parks themselves will remain open for people to wander but their parking lots will be closed. De Villa is urging school boards and condo boards to also close their playgrounds and amenities. Her move followed similar restrictions imposed hours earlier by the City of Vaughan.

De Villa told reporters at a daily COVID-19 briefing she had hoped Torontonians would heed her pleas to get outside and enjoy physical activity --after the shuttering of entertainment venues and non-essential businesses --while remaining far enough apart to not risk virus infection.

“Unfortunately people weren’t respecting the request so we find ourselves in a position where we have to take this course of action in order to ensure that social distancing is maintained and to reduce virus spread,” de Villa said, citing reports to public health and her own observations.

“There were violations --people simply not following the recommendation to stay 6 feet away,” away from each other, she said, adding Toronto can still use social distancing to slow the pandemic spread and avoid the mass deaths seen in Italy and other places --“but our window is closing.”

She revealed three new deaths --an “elderly” man with pre-existing medical conditions who had gone to North York General Hospital and two residents of city-run Seven Oaks long-term care home in Scarborough.

Identified COVID-19 infections in Toronto jumped 39 to 319 on Wednesday, including 22 people ill enough to need hospitalization. Total infections soared more than fourfold over nine days since community transmission --not traceable to travel --was first identified in Toronto. Four Torontonians have died.

“Even if we all started staying home over the next several days we will still see infections,” several days old being newly identified, de Villa said, but “flatten the curve” of surging new infections that, left unchecked, could overwhelm health care facilities and elevate COVID-19’s death toll.

“These are rather unusual times and we need to take unusual steps to protect families.”

Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, leading Toronto’s emergency response to the outbreak, warned that people caught in playgrounds and other park amenities risk fines as high as $5,000.

City officials always try to educate residents before resorting to punishment, Pegg said, but “where we need the assistance of police in order to achieve that enforcement, it will happen.”

Inspectors on Tuesday visited 59 bars and restaurants, issuing warning letters to four for offering dine-in service, plus two notices to non-essential businesses --both gyms --for opening, he said.

The parks order also prohibits use of: soccer and multi-use fields; baseball diamonds; skate and BMX parks; Frisbee golf locations; outdoor fitness equipment in parks; pickleball courts; allotment gardens; picnic sites; and park shelters.

The order was effective Wednesday with warning signs to be fully installed by Friday.