As York leaves lockdown, Markham’s mayor calls for stricter measures -- but York’s top doctor says no for now

Thestar.com
Feb. 22, 2021
Kevin Jiang

As York Region readies to enter the red control level of Ontario’s COVID-19 response framework, Markham’s mayor is urging stricter measures. However, York’s top doctor believes the plan is fine as is.

At a special meeting of York Region council Thursday, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti urged York’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Karim Kurji, to use his powers and enact stricter red zone regulations.

According to a provincial update Friday afternoon, York will move from a state of lockdown into the red zone starting Monday. While regions including Toronto and Peel will remain under stay-at-home orders until at least March 8, York can expect to see a limited revival of local businesses.

Although Scarpitti encouraged the reopening, he also urged caution.

His suggested measures include banning indoor social gatherings of people outside one’s immediate household, lowering capacity limits of grocery stores from 75 to 50 per cent, restricting capacities of malls and big box stores from 50 to 25 per cent, keeping capacities of small businesses and restaurants at 50 per cent and continuing closures of large sporting and recreational facilities.

“I believe these additional measures are needed while we continue to assess any further impacts of the COVID-19 variants,” he said in a Friday statement.

However, Kurji argued that the present red zone restrictions are enough to limit spread.

“I am not too keen to move towards a Section 22 (health protection) order unless I can prove through data that they’re necessary,” Kurji told the Star.

Part of his reasoning is that, in reality, businesses will experience a far lower capacity than advertised. For example, he said the 75 per cent figure for grocery stores was calculated from the total square-footage of the store; after accounting for shelving space and measuring only the walkable areas, the capacity will actually hover around 30 per cent.

“Scarpitti had been asking (grocery store capacity) to be reduced from 75 to 50 per cent. But you see, they’re actually operating at lower capacity,” he said.

“We will be in touch with the supermarkets, etcetera, to ensure that the right calculations are being used.”

As for Scarpitti’s other suggestions, Kurji said “we will continue to monitor and then come up with some solutions, if they’re necessary.”

In Scarpitti’s statement Friday, he said Kurji “made a commitment to raise the need for these added restrictions at the provincial health table.” However, Kurji said he currently has no plans to do so.

“I didn’t actually see anything particularly pressing for me to take to the provincial table,” he said. “I did indicate that there were some issues that had been raised, but a preliminary look at this doesn’t seem to suggest any changes are necessary.”

In response to concerns of more contagious COVID-19 variants spreading throughout York, Kurji believed the region had it under control.

“We are not actually seeing any explosive growth in these variants,” he said. “We believe that with the steps that have been taken at international borders ... the vigilance of the public and with an aggressive case and contact management, we can keep things in check.”

“Looking at our own data, I am not actually expecting any problems (going into the red zone),” Kurji said. With more people becoming vaccinated, he said “the likelihood of a third wave is actually getting less and less in my opinion.”

Scarpitti did not reply to a request for addition comment on Sunday.