Get your flip-flops out: Toronto is opening some outdoor pools as of Saturday as COVID-19 infection levels continue to drop

Thestar.com
June 11, 2021
David Rider

Torontonians can enjoy pools and patios this weekend as the city starts to emerge from seven months of pandemic lockdown.

Ten city-run outdoor pools will open Saturday, Mayor John Tory announced Wednesday, with other outdoor pools opening June 19 and remaining so until Labour Day.

To limit risk of COVID-19 spread, pools will operate at 25-per-cent capacity. Unlike last summer, swimmers are being asked to pre-book 45-minute swims online at www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/recreation/swimming.

Reservations for the free swims can be made starting at 8 a.m. Thursday. Pools will allow a limited number of walk-in patrons to help those without online access.

Pools opening Saturday are: Alex Duff; Monarch Park Pool; Heron Park Community Centre; Grandravine Community Centre; McGregor Community Centre; Parkway Forest Community Centre; Pine Point; Riverdale Park; Sunnyside-Gus Ryder; and West Mall.

They open one day after Ontario starts Stage 1 reopening that includes, at 12:01 a.m. Friday, resumption of outdoor restaurant and bar service with limits including the number of people per table and distance between tables.

“Pools and patios are just days away from opening -- we are getting there,” Tory told reporters, citing virus infection numbers that continue to drop rapidly.

New data shows Toronto’s seven-day average for daily new COVID-19 infections dropped 39 per cent -- to 161 -- in the week ending last Saturday.

That rate has plummeted since April 16 when it hit a pandemic high of 1,312 daily cases. The last time the average was as low as now was Sept. 20, early in the pandemic’s second wave.

The number of active daily outbreaks fell from 23 to 3.

The seven-day average for new hospitalizations is also dropping, falling almost in half to 11 in the week ending Saturday. People hospitalized earlier in the pandemic’s wave, however, remain in intensive care and continue to die.

The danger of infections starting to rise again as people mingle more on patios and malls, where non-essential stores can reopen with limits, is tempered this time, experts say, by protection from COVID-19 vaccines.

Just over 72 per cent of Toronto adults have received a first dose, with about 11 per cent fully vaccinated.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s public health chief, said she continues to watch with concern the so-called Delta variant, which is much more contagious than the COVID-19 strain it is replacing and makes those it infects much sicker.

“Toronto is on a solid path forward, the one narrow path while we watch what the Delta variant does here,” said de Villa, reporting Toronto has seen 122 Delta cases, up from 68 a week ago.

That growth is slower than in the U.K., where it has become the dominant strain. De Villa said she continues to watch for signs the variant will “explode” here.

A U.K. study found that people with only dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine were 33 per cent protected from the Delta variant. Protection rates shot way up once people were fully vaccinated.

But at some City of Toronto vaccine clinics, officials report, it is clinic staff who need protection from rude and abusive patrons.

Mayor John Tory said he received reports of people being vaccinated making “racist and sexist comments” to staff and in some cases taking their photo and posting it on social media without the worker’s permission.

Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, overseeing Toronto’s vaccine rollout, had few details but said “a lot of it seems to be focused around the desire for photographs and images and some overly aggressive behaviour when they’re asked not to do that.”

People are forbidden from taking photos inside city clinics to preserve privacy rights of patrons and staff. There are “selfie stations” outside main clinic rooms where people are encouraged to take photos and post them on social media.

In addition to vaccine protections, another difference this time is that all of Ontario is relaxing the same restrictions at the same time.

Tory said that mayors and regional chairs in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton region have agreed that none of them will agitate for their municipalities to open quicker than the others, as happened previously.

The patchwork of different restrictions led to confusion from residents and encouraged people to travel between regions for indoor dining and other services.

“We did agree,” to stick with regionwide rules, Tory said, adding they agreed that will “maximize our chance of success,” in ending the pandemic.