Burst social bubbles and get close only with household members, Toronto says amid accelerating surge in COVID-19 infections

Thestar.com
Sept. 29, 2020
David Rider

Toronto’s accelerating COVID-19 spread has killed the concept of “social bubbles” of up to 10 people, prompting city officials to urge residents to now get close only to other household members.

The new advice was announced Monday, along with proposed new controls on bars and restaurants, in response to a sustained surge including 381 new confirmed and probable infections in a single day and a record 700 for the entire province.

“It’s plain to see that there is an immediate, rising risk in Toronto of continued and significant COVID-19 resurgence,” Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s public health chief, told reporters. “Nowhere in the city escapes the risk. We move around too much for that.”

The city advised residents to disregard old advice from provincial officials, who said in mid-June that it was safe to resume close mingling with up to 10 extended family or friends.

Amid the infections resurgence since early August, when Toronto entered Stage 3 reopening, and with many children now back in school, “times have changed,” said de Villa.

She has blamed the relapse on people gathering indoors and ignoring advice to physically distance, wear masks and wash their hands. “The results we want won’t come from rules that aren’t followed,” she said.

Other measures recommended to city council, which meets Wednesday, include:

• Cut the number of people allowed in eating and drinking establishments from 100 to 75.
• Require bars and restaurants to log contact information for every customer, not just one person per party, and cut the maximum number at a table from 10 people to six.
• Order bars and restaurants to play music no louder than “normal conversation” so people don’t lean in and speak louder, which can boost spread of the virus primarily shared via respiratory droplets.
• Urge the province to mandate masks in workplaces when physical distancing isn’t possible. The city looked at issuing that order but decided, de Villa said, that the province has jurisdiction.

Proposed new rules on bars and restaurants follow province ordering them to move closing timeto midnight from 2 a.m. The Ontario Hospital Association urged Toronto to revert to Stage 2 — where business could not offer indoor dining and drinking — de Villa stressed it’s behaviour, not its location, speeding the spread.

Outbreaks have been traced to private parties, weddings and religious services, she said, but some added risk factors in bars and restaurants justify extra precautions.

Mayor John Tory admitted being jolted by Monday’s spike in infections, saying he knows Torontonians are “scared” that the virus, which on July 27 claimed only one new infection, has roared upwards and starting to hit schools.

Toronto on Monday reported the highest rate of infection in Ontario, and the fastest growth in the infection rate, even adjusted for population.

The city had 7.6 new cases per 100,000 per day, up 3.2 cases per day from one week earlier.

“We are asking Toronto residents to recognize that the alarm bell is ringing and to take action now in their own lives,” Tory said.

The officials said people calling for Toronto to retreat into lockdown have to take into account the public-health harms of social and economic shutdown in terms of shuttered businesses, lost income and damage to mental health.

“These (new) restrictions have been put in place to keep people healthy and alive without going back to a total shutdown we can’t afford,” Tory said.