On the eve of new public health restrictions taking effect across Ontario in an attempt to reduce the spread of the omicron variant, at least 3,400 active cases of COVID-19 are being reported across the greater Kawarthas region, with around 28 people currently in hospital due to the disease.

As of Tuesday (January 4), Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is reporting 1,323 active cases; Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge Health Unit is reporting 1,041 active cases; and Peterborough Public Health is reporting 1,035 active cases.

However, due to changes in eligibility for PCR tests that went into effect on Friday, all regional health units are cautioning these numbers are underestimates of actual cases.

In Hastings Prince Edward, there are 540 active cases in Belleville, 364 in Quinte West, 158 in Prince Edward County, 136 in Central Hastings, 78 in North Hastings, 32 in Tyendinaga & Deseronto, and 14 in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. There are 10 active outbreaks, including six at long-term care and retirement homes, three in congregate living facilities, and one at Quinte Health Care Belleville General Hospital. A total of 18 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19, with five patients in intensive care.

In Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge, there are 370 active cases in Kawartha Lakes, 593 in Northumberland, and 76 in Haliburton. There are 13 active outbreaks, including six at long-term care and retirement homes, five in congregate living facilities, one at a elementary school, and one at Northumberland Hills Hospital. Five people are currently hospitalized because of COVID-19, with three patients in intensive care.

In Peterborough, 424 new cases have been confirmed since the health unit’s last report on Friday, increasing the number of active cases to 1,035. There are eight active outbreaks, including five at long-term care and retirement homes, two in congregate living facilities, two at elementary schools, and one at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. There are at least five people hospitalized due to COVID-19. Peterborough is reporting its 30th COVID-related death, the sixth death in the last month.

Provincially, Ontario is reporting 11,352 new cases confirmed by PCR testing. However, Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table is estimating the daily number of cases at 19,854, with a test positivity rate of 32.4 per cent — meaning around 32 out of every 100 people tested are positive for COVID-19.

According to the provincial government, around one out of every 100 people infected by the omicron variant will end up in hospital. As of Tuesday, there are at least 1,290 Ontarians hospitalized with COVID-19, with 266 patients in intensive care due to a COVID-related critical illness.

Effective January 5, Ontario will be limiting social gatherings to five people indoors and 10 outdoors, closing indoor dining at restaurants and bars, closing gyms, and closing indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, museums, galleries, and more.

The measures will remain in effect for at least three weeks, in an attempt to limit the spread of the omicron variant and preserve hospital capacity until more people receive their booster shots of vaccine.

The province is also delaying the return of students to in-person learning by at least two weeks until January 17, moving schools online, and instructing hospitals to pause all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures.

Two days after Ontario reported a record-high 18,445 new COVID-19 cases and with more than 1,200 infected people being treated in hospitals, the provincial government has announced additional public health measures in an attempt to reduce the rapid spread of the omicron variant and reduce its impact on the health care system.

Effective January 5, Ontario will be limiting social gatherings to five people indoors and 10 outdoors, closing indoor dining at restaurants and bars, closing gyms, and closing indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, museums, galleries, and more. The measures will remain in effect for at least three weeks.

The province is also delaying the return of students to in-person learning by at least two weeks until January 17, moving schools online, and instructing hospitals to pause all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures.

The government is describing the restrictions as a “modified” version of the province’s Step Two of the Roadmap to Reopen, which was in effect in June and July last year.

“We face a tsunami of new cases in the days and weeks ahead and, as we do, virtually everyone in this province will know someone who has been exposed to this virus,” said Premier Doug Ford at Queen’s Park on Monday (January 3), during his first media conference since December 17.

“Now, we’re bracing for impact. Based on our real-world experience here in Ontario, the evidence tells us that about one per cent of people who get omicron will end up in the hospital. That may not seem a lot and, under past waves, it might have been something we could withstand. But omicron isn’t like the other variants — it’s much, much more transmissible, so the math isn’t on our side.”

“Based on the current trends, our public health experts tell us we could see hundreds of thousands of cases every single day,” Ford said. “One per cent of hundreds of thousands is too many new patients for our hospitals to handle. Over the past few days, we’ve started to see an alarming number of new hospital admissions now, with triple-digit admissions into hospitals every single day.

Ford added that people infected with omicron who are admitted to hospital are leaving soon after, “sometimes only staying for a couple of days,” as opposed to weeks in intensive care units with previous variants.

“But even so, with omicron surging across Ontario at the current rate, Ontario health modelling tells us we could be thousands of beds short in the coming weeks,” Ford said. “We can’t let that happen. This data is a clear call for further action. We must do everything in our powers to protect our hospitals and to ensure our frontline workers aren’t overwhelmed.”

Ford said that, while the province has been adding new hospital beds over the past months and will continue to do so, “added capacity alone isn’t enough — we need to implement measures that further reduce contacts and mobility.”

Effective at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, January 5th, the following public health restrictions go into effect:

• Reducing social gathering limits to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors.
• Limiting capacity at organized public events to five people indoors.
• Requiring businesses and organizations to ensure employees work remotely, unless the nature of their work requires them to be onsite.
• Limiting capacity at indoor weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites and ceremonies to 50 per cent capacity of the particular room. Outdoor services are limited to the number of people that can maintain two metres of physical distance. Social gatherings associated with these services must adhere to the social gathering limits.
• Limiting capacity at retail settings, including shopping malls, to 50 per cent capacity. For shopping malls, physical distancing is required in line-ups, loitering is not permitted, and food courts are required to close.
• Limiting personal care services to 50 per cent capacity, along with other restrictions. Saunas, steam rooms, and oxygen bars must close.
• Closing indoor meeting and event spaces with limited exceptions, but permitting outdoor spaces to remain open with restrictions.
• Limiting public libraries to 50 per cent capacity.
• Closing indoor dining at restaurants, bars, and other food or drink establishments. Outdoor dining with restrictions, takeout, drive through, and delivery is permitted.
• Restricting the sale of alcohol after 10 p.m. and the consumption of alcohol on-premise in businesses or settings after 11 p.m., with delivery and takeout, grocery and convenience stores, and other liquor stores exempted.
• Closing indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, with rehearsals and recorded performances permitted with restrictions.
• Closing museums, galleries, zoos, science centres, landmarks, historic sites, botanical gardens and similar attractions, amusement parks and waterparks, tour and guide services and fairs, rural exhibitions, and festivals. Outdoor establishments are permitted to open with restrictions and with spectator occupancy, where applicable, limited to 50 per cent capacity.
• Closing indoor horse racing tracks, car racing tracks, and other similar venues. Outdoor establishments are permitted to open, with restrictions and with spectator occupancy limited to 50 per cent capacity. Boat tour are permitted at 50 per cent capacity.
• Closing indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities, including gyms, except for athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and select professional and elite amateur sport leagues. Outdoor facilities are permitted to operate, but with the number of spectators not to exceed 50 per cent occupancy and other requirements.

For a full list of public health measures, visit covid-19.ontario.ca/public-health-measures. The measures will remain in effect for at least 21 days (until January 26).

In addition, the province is delaying the return of students to in-person learning at all publicly funded and private schools until at least Monday, January 17th. All schools will move to remote learning beginning Wednesday, January 5th.

School buildings will be allowed to remain open for child care operations (including emergency child care), to provide in-person instruction for students with special education needs who cannot be accommodated remotely, and for staff who are unable to deliver quality instruction from home.

During the remote learning period, the government will provide free emergency child care for school-aged children of health care and other eligible frontline workers.

Also on January 5, the Chief Medical Officer of Health will reinstate “Directive 2” for hospitals and regulated health professionals, instructing hospitals to pause all non-emergent and non-urgent surgeries and procedures to preserve critical care and human resource capacity in the health care system.

As for supports for businesses affected by the new measures, Ford said the government would be expanding its new Ontario Business Costs Rebate Program, originally announced on December 22. Under that program, eligible businesses required to close or reduce capacity will receive rebate payments for a portion of the property tax and energy costs they incur while subject to the measures.

Under the original announcement of the program, eligible businesses required to reduce capacity to 50 per cent, such as smaller retail stores, will receive a rebate payment equivalent to 50 per cent of their costs. The program has now been expanded to include businesses required to close for indoor activities (such as restaurants and gyms), which wiill receive a rebate payment equivalent to 100 per cent of their costs.

A full list of eligible business types will be made available when applications for the program open later in January.

Peterborough veterinarian Kristy Hiltz was looking forward to a quiet New Year’s Eve at home with her family.

But when Stacey MacPherson, a registered veterinary technician (RVT) at Dr. Hiltz’s Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital, messaged her that the Kawartha Veterinary Emergency Clinic (KVEC) was overwhelmed with patients and had to close its doors to catch up, that plan abruptly was put aside.

“She posted a screenshot of a Facebook post that KVEC had made and asked ‘What should we do? If it’s closed, our clients won’t be able to access care.’,” Dr. Hiltz recalls.

“But it wasn’t just our clients who were unable to access care,” Dr. Hiltz explains. “If the emergency clinic is closed, nobody is getting care. I called KVEC and asked what they needed from us. ‘Do you want us to just man the phones? Do you want us to take non-critical cases until you’re back on your feet? Basically, how can we help?'”

Located at 1840 Lansdowne Street West, KVEC is an accredited emergency veterinary clinic with veterinarians, RVTs, and support staff experienced in emergency medicine and surgery. The full-service after-hours clinic services veterinarians and their clients in Peterborough, Kawarthas Lakes, and Northumberland. In 2021, KVEC treated almost 11,000 small animals needing emergency care and treatment.

What Dr. Hiltz learned during her call with KVEC was that the clinic already had 16 patients in its care on December 31 when a large number of emergency cases started to arrive around 9 a.m. By 3 p.m., the clinic had reached full capacity and was forced to close its doors to new incoming patients.

“We put a notice on our Facebook page that we had to shut down,” says KVEC office manager and RVT Joanne Pidgeon, noting that — at the height of the crisis — more than 30 animals, both admissions and outpatients, were in the clinic’s care.

“That was a difficult message to put out but we had to,” she says. “We didn’t have a choice.”

With Dr. Hiltz’s offer to help, along with another offer of assistance from Dr. Leslie Scott at the Norwood Veterinary Hospital, KVEC was able to refer incoming patients.

“We were thrilled with the offers of help,” Pidgeon says. “It made our day that they did that. They’re very compassionate people.”

At the Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital, Dr. Hiltz had swung into action by 5:30 p.m., assisted by MacPherson. Joining them was a second vet-RVT pairing of Dr. Sara Tratch and Jill Vander Eyken.

“We had five emergencies in four hours,” notes Dr. Hiltz. “That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re having to do blood work, x-rays, and anaesthesia surgery, it was busy. One was a real concern. The others weren’t life threatening, but there was a lot of suffering.”

By 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, the capacity crisis at KVEC had passed and the emergency clinic was one again able to accept new patients.

“We all thought we had the day off,” Dr Hiltz says. “Everybody had plans — we missed some important family time. Stacey and I left after 9 p.m. The other team left about 10 p.m. We have so little family time these days, but it was important that the animals were seen.”

While the final day of 2021 was hectic for the veterinarians and RVTs involved, Dr. Hiltz says it’s a microcosm of a bigger problem.

“Prior to COVID, we were experiencing a shortage of veterinarians Canada wide,” she explains. “Then COVID hit, and that really precipitated an enormous crisis in terms of our ability to provide services, and also in terms of mental health and burnout amongst veterinarians.”

“When the first lockdown happened, there was this gut-wrenching, soul-sucking anguish. I didn’t know if we were going to be completely locked down. We didn’t know if we were going to be declared an essential service. All I could think about were the animals and the people who are going to watch their animals die, with no access to care and no access to pain management. I almost went out of my mind with worry during those first few weeks of the pandemic.”

Not helping the veterinarian shortage challenge was the fact that more people were acquiring animals to keep them company during the isolation of lockdown. In addition, people were paying more attention to their pets as they spent more time with them, prompting them to seek veterinary care in increasing numbers.

“It’s not a shortage that’s going to be over any time soon,” says Dr. Hiltz. “In the meantime, those on the front lines (of veterinary care) are running with no gas in their tanks and consistently being pushed beyond their limits.”

“Mental health has become a big issue in our profession. There’s now an organization called Not One More Vet to deal with this. Veterinarian suicide is rampant.”

A U.S. non-profit organization, Not One More Vet was founded in 2014 by Dr. Nicole McArthur following the suicide of world-renowned veterinarian and author Dr. Sophia Yin. The membership of Not One More Vet’s private Facebook group exceeds 28,000 veterinary professionals worldwide.

According to Not One More Vet, one in 10 veterinarians and one in five veterinary technicians have contemplated suicide. Statistics from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association state that one in five Canadian veterinarians and technologists have reported suicidal thoughts. Research from the Ontario Veterinary College published in early 2020 reported 26.2 per cent of Canadian veterinarians had contemplated suicide in the previous 12 months.

For Dr. Hiltz, what transpired on New Year’s Eve was her “nightmare coming to fruition.”

“I’m incredibly proud of my staff,” she says. “I’m a veterinarian but I’m also the boss. To put a message out on Facebook and have three of my already overworked staff, each of whom were looking forward to a break, step up is heartening. Not just us, but the Norwood Veterinary Hospital as well.”

“But as proud as I am, I also know how close to the edge everybody is,” Dr. Hiltz adds. “You have to be really careful about what you’re asking. In all honesty, it’s probably more than I should have asked of my staff.”

The capacity crisis at KVEC, Dr. Hiltz says, is an example of how close to the breaking point veterinary medicine is.

“It worked out this time but it’s not the big solution we need,” she says. “We don’t have anymore to give. We’re doing everything we can with what we have.”

Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay has welcomed the first baby born at the hospital in 2022.

Olivia Walker, daughter to Cheyanne and Colton Walker, arrived at 11:34 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

“She gave us a run for our money, but definitely worth every second of it,” Cheyanne says in a media release from the hospital, referring to the 24 hours she spent in labour.

Olivia weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces and is the first child for the Lindsay couple.

“We’re very excited,” they say. “We can’t wait for her to meet the rest of her crazy family.”

Olivia was delivered by Dr. Yehuda Habaz.

“Ross Memorial sends our congratulations and best wishes to the entire Walker family,” reads the media release.

Ontario reported a new pandemic high of 18,445 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (January 1), the fourth straight day of record-breaking infections as the highly transmissible omicron variant continues to sweep across the province.

Saturday’s record exceeds the previous records of 16,713 new cases set on Friday, 13,807 on Thursday, and 10,436 on Wednesday. The seven-day average of new daily cases now stands at 12,496, more than double what it was only a week ago.

While Public Health Ontario released Saturday’s case numbers in its daily epidemilogical summary report, the Ontario government will not be updating its data — which includes hospitalizations and ICU usage — until Tuesday (January 4). As of Friday, there were 1,144 COVID-related hospitalizations in Ontario and 192 patients in ICUs due to COVID-19.

According to Public Health Ontario, it’s likely the actual number of Ontarians with COVID-19 is higher due to changes in the availability of testing because of the omicron variant.

Most of the new cases are in larger urban centres, including Toronto (4,721), Peel (1,730), York (1,711), Ottawa (1,482), and Hamilton (1,032).

In the greater Kawarthas region, Hastings Prince Edward is reporting 236 new cases, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge is reporting 151, and Peterborough is reporting 144.

As of Friday, there were 2,405 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, including 1,040 in Hastings Prince Edward, 746 in Peterborough, and 619 in Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (352 in Northumberland, 231 in Kawartha Lakes, and 36 in Haliburton).

During a virtual media conference on Thursday, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore announced a series of changes to public health measures and guidance in the province.

The changes included limiting eligibility for PCR tests to high-risk people, reducing the isolation period for fully vaccinated people, reserving rapid antigen tests for health care and the highest-risk settings, restricting spectator capacity to 50 per cent of capacity or 1,000 people (whichever is less) indoors at sports venues, concert venues, and theatres, offering fourth doses to long-term care residents, mandating third doses for all long-term care staff, students, volunteers, caregivers, and support workers, and delaying the return to school by two days.

Notably absent from Thursday’s media conference were Ontario Premier Doug Ford, health minister and deputy premier Christine Elliott, and education minister Stephen Lecce, prompting widespread public criticism.

Ford’s last media conference was on December 17, when the province announced additional public health restrictions to contain the spread of the omicron variant. On that date, Ontario was reporting 3,124 new cases.

Saturday’s report of 18,445 new cases far exceeds the 10,000 cases by the end of December, projected on December 16 by Ontario’s science advisory table if people did not reduce their close contacts by at least 50 per cent.

The City of Kawartha Lakes is temporarily closing the pools at Lindsay Recreation Complex in Lindsay and Forbert Memorial Pool in Bobcaygeon and cancelling all aquatic programming from Sunday, January 2nd to Saturday, January 8th.

The municipality announced the temporary closure on Friday (December 31), “to help ensure the safety of the public and staff” given the omicron wave of the pandemic.

Any registrations for drop-in public swim programs during this time period will be cancelled and refunds will be issued automatically to registered participants. Drop-in public swim programs are scheduled to resume on Sunday, January 9th.

Registered aquatic programs, including swim lessons and aquafit classes, that were scheduled to start the week of January 3rd will be delayed one week, and will instead begin the week of January 10th.

The session end date will be extended by one week to make up the missed class.

Residents who have any questions and concerns can email aquatics@kawarthalakes.ca.

Environment Canada has issued a winter weather travel advisory for much of the Kawarthas region for Saturday night (January 1) into Sunday.

The advisory is in effect for Peterborough County, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, and central Hastings County.

Snow is expected to develop over the area late Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening. The snow will continue into Sunday with peak snowfall rates of 1 to 2 cm per hour possible.

Total snowfall amounts of 5 to 10 cm are possible by the time the snow comes to an end on Sunday afternoon.

Travel may be hazardous Saturday night and Sunday morning as untreated surfaces are expected to become snow covered and icy.

This snow is the result of a low pressure system passing south of Lake Erie Saturday night. There is still uncertainty regarding the track of this system. Should the low pressure system track farther south, the resulting snowfall amounts would be less.

Motorists should expect hazardous winter driving conditions and adjust travel plans accordingly. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.

On the same day Ontario reported a pandemic high of new COVID-19 cases due to the highly transmissible omicron variant, the provincial government announced a series of changes to public health measures and guidance.

The changes include limiting eligibility for PCR tests to high-risk people, reducing the isolation period for fully vaccinated people, reserving rapid antigen tests for health care and the highest-risk settings, restricting spectator capacity to 50 per cent of capacity or 1,000 people (whichever is less) indoors at sports venues, concert venues, and theatres, offering fourth doses to long-term care residents, mandating third doses for all long-term care staff, students, volunteers, caregivers, and support workers, and delaying the return to school by two days.

“Today we are reporting 13,807 new cases of COVID-19 in Ontario,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, during a virtual media conference on Thursday (December 30). “I know that this number and the numbers that we have seen in the last few days feel overwhelmingly high but, with a doubling time of approximately three days, we must be prepared to see our cases continue to grow.”

“The good news is that with this increase of cases, we have not seen a corresponding rapid increase in hospitalizations and ICU admissions. Today we are reporting 965 people in hospital, and 200 people in ICU due to COVID-related critical illness.”

Dr. Moore added that, while omicron is clearly more transmissible, preliminary findings from Public Health Ontario suggest it is less virulent than earlier strains of the virus.

“The risk of hospitalization or death was 54 per cent lower for omicron cases as compared to delta cases,” he said, cautioning that the number of hospitalizations and impacts on the health care sector will still be “significant” due to the variant’s high transmissibility.

Dr. Moore said the province has asked hospitals to update their daily reporting to distinguish the number of people admitted to hospital or ICUs for COVID-19 from those who are admitted for other reasons, “such as a broken bone or appendicitis,” but who also test positive for COVID-19.

Effective Friday (December 31), publicly funded PCR testing will only be available for high-risk people who are symptomatic or who are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 — including for the purposes of confirming a COVID-19 diagnosis to begin treatment — and workers and residents in the highest-risk settings as well as vulnerable populations. Eligible groups for PCR testing are outlined at news.ontario.ca/en/backgrounder/1001387/updated-eligibility-for-pcr-testing-and-case-and-contact-management-guidance-in-ontario.

This change means the government is asking members of the general public with mild symptoms of COVID-19 to no longer seek PCR testing. There will also be no PCR tests for asymptomatic people in the community. The government is also no longer requiring or encouraging most people with a positive result from a rapid antigen test to get a confirmatory PCR or rapid molecular test.

“This we recognize reflects some significant changes from our previous COVID testing strategy, which meant that anyone with symptoms could receive a PCR test,” Dr. Moore said. “But the omicron variant is rapidly spreading, and we must preserve these resources for those who need them the most.”

Dr. Moore said the government has a limited supply of rapid antigen tests and is prioritizing the tests for health care and highest risk settings. This includes rapid antigen test use for “test-to-work” situations where asymptomatic staff in these sectors can return to work when they would otherwise be on isolation at home. Rapid antigen testing may be used to confirm if a symptomatic person has COVID-19, with no requirement for a confirmatory PCR or rapid molecular test.

“This means that, if you have symptoms of COVID-19 and are not eligible for a PCR test and do not have access to a rapid antigen test, you should assume that you have COVID-19 and isolate according to our revised guidelines.”

Ontario is also changing the required isolation period for people with COVID-19 who are vaccinated and children under 12 — as well as their household contacts — to five days following the onset of symptoms. If their symptoms are improved for at least 24 hours after five days, they can end isolation as long as they continue to follow all public health and safety measures including masking and physical distancing. Non-household contacts of these people are not required to isolate, but must self-monitor for symptoms for 10 days.

People with COVID-19 who are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or immunocompromised will be required to isolate for 10 days.

While the government recommends that those who work or live in high-risk health care settings return to work after 10 days from their last exposure or symptom onset or from their date of diagnosis, to ensure sufficient staffing levels in health care settings, they have the option to return to work after isolating for seven days, based on a negative PCR on day six or two negative rapid antigen tests on day six and seven. The province will provide the testing through the health-care setting.

When it comes to case and contact management, Dr. Moore said that public health will “shift its focus” to positive cases in high-risk settings such as long-term care homes and retirement homes.

“Other individual cases will be asked to identify and inform their own close contacts,” Dr. Moore said. “This means that not everyone will get a call from public health with guidance or next steps.”

Dr. Moore said lower-risk individuals with COVID-19 symptoms who think or known they may have been exposed should visit ontario.ca/exposed for more information.

Effective immediately, the province will be making fourth doses of mRNA vaccines available to residents of long-term care homes, retirement homes, Elder Care Lodges, and other congregate care settings if at least three months, or 84 days, have passed since their third dose.

By January 28, all staff, students, volunteers, caregivers, and support workers in long-term care homes will be required to get a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine if they are eligible for one. All visitors to long-term care homes will be required to provide proof of a booster dose once the temporary pause on general visitors is lifted.

Effective at 12:01 a.m. on Friday (December 31), Ontario is restricting spectator capacity to 50 per cent of the usual seating capacity or 1,000 people (whichever is less) in the indoor areas of
spectator areas of facilities used for sports and recreational fitness activities (e.g., sporting events), concert venues, and theatres. Previously, the capacity limit on these settings was 50 per cent regardless of the maximum capacity of the venue.

“Finally, I know many parents and students are anxious to hear about the return to school,” Dr. Moore said. “I and colleagues from across Ontario have always maintained that schools should be the last to close and the first to open. It is critical to the positive mental health and academic success of our children.”

Dr. Moore confirmed students will return to in-person learning on Wednesday (January 5), two days later than originally scheduled.

“This will provide our schools with extra time to begin to put in place additional health and safety measures,” Dr. Moore said, which include:

• More rigorous screening and monitoring of symptoms for students, parents, and staff.
• Providing non-fit-tested N95 masks for staff in schools and licensed child care settings as an optional alternative to medical or surgical masks, and additional supply of free high-quality three-ply cloth masks for students and children in January.
• Providing an additional 3,000 standalone HEPA filter units to school boards.
• Continuing PCR testing eligibility for symptomatic elementary and secondary students, education staff, and participating private and First Nation operated schools who have received a PCR self-collection kit through their school.
• Temporarily permitting only low-contact indoor sports and safe extra-curricular activities starting in January.
• Updating COVID-19 reporting requirements for school boards and child care in January.
• Supporting the projected hiring of over 2,000 staff, including additional teachers, custodians, and mental health workers.

“I understand that we’re all tired and just want this pandemic to be over,” Dr. Moore said. “Unfortunately though, we need to get through this omicron wave.”

“I’m hopeful that, with the effort that we are putting in now, 2022 will prove to be a year that we are able to get the better of this virus.”