Premier Doug Ford ends daily COVID-19 briefings

Citynews.ca
Dec. 11, 2020

Ontario Premier Doug Ford will no longer be giving his daily COVID-19 briefings.

Ontarians have grown accustomed to the daily updates that have come at 1 p.m. each weekday over the last nine months of the pandemic.

The premier regularly took to the podium and outlined where the province stood as it relates to the virus and then took questions from reporters.

But as we’ve learned from the premier’s office, these updates will no longer be happening. No specific reason has been given but his office says Ford will be available when there is an important update to provide.

The break from the daily briefings comes as Queen’s Park adjourns for the winter break.

The Ford government is set provide new COVID-19 projections today. The new data will indicate whether lockdowns in Toronto and Peel Region that started two weeks ago have been successful in slowing the spread of the virus.

Following Health Canada’s approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, a spokesperson for Ontario’s minister of health says the province is expected to secure a “very small number” of them by Monday, Dec. 14.

Ford has said vulnerable seniors, their caregivers and health-care workers will be among the first to receive a vaccine.