Vital updates:
- The Ontario government, in consultation with Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, has extended all emergency orders currently in force that were made under s.7.0.2(4) of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to July 22, 2020. The government intends to extend emergency orders to align with the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020, if passed. The following emergency orders are therefore extended until July 22:
- Declaration of Emergency
- Extensions and renewals of orders (amended July 8)
- Enforcement of orders
- Stage 2 closures
- Stage 1 closures
- Patios
- Closure of outdoor recreational amenities
- Organized public events, certain gatherings
- Guidance on gathering for the purpose of a funeral service
- Prohibiting unfair pricing on necessary goods
- Electricity price for RPP consumers
- Treatment of temporary COVID-19 related payments to employees
- Special rules regarding temporary pandemic pay
- Access to COVID-19 status information by specified persons
- Access to personal health information by means of the electronic health record
- Certain persons enabled to issue medical certificates of death
- Hospital credentialing processes
- Work deployment for boards of health
- Work deployment for health service providers
- Work deployment for long-term care homes
- Work deployment measures in retirement homes
- Limiting work to a single long-term care home
- Limiting work to a single retirement home
- Work deployment measures for mental health and addictions agencies
- Deployment of employees of service provider organizations
- Streamlining requirements for long-term care homes
- Management of long-term care homes in outbreak
- Management of retirement homes in outbreak
- Agreements between health service providers and retirement homes
- Temporary health or residential facilities
- Service agencies providing services and supports to adults with developmental disabilities
- Work deployment measures for service agencies providing violence against women residential services and crisis line services
- Work deployment measures for district social services administration boards
- Work deployment measures for municipalities
- Congregate care settings
- Education sector
- Signatures in wills and powers of attorney
- Pick up and delivery of cannabis
- Drinking water and sewage
- Limitation periods
- Traffic management
- Use of force and firearms in policing services
- Electronic service of documents
- Some emergency orders have been revoked. A list of revoked orders is below. Note that revoked orders may have been superseded by other orders; check the list above before changing your policies.
- The Ontario government is expanding access to reliable broadband and cellular service in underserved and unserved parts of the province. The application intake for the $150 million Improving Connectivity for Ontario program (ICON) opens today. Telecommunication service providers, municipalities, Indigenous communities and non-profits are invited to submit innovative proposals and lend their investment, expertise and experience to improve connectivity in communities across Ontario. The preliminary application deadline for the first intake of the ICON program is August 21, 2020.
Reading recommendations:
- The U.S. and U.K. Were the Two Best Prepared Nations to Tackle a Pandemic—What Went Wrong? Gavin Yamey & Clare Wenham, Time
- A guide to R — the pandemic’s misunderstood metric, David Adam, Nature
- Are Our Management Theories Outdated? Gianpiero Petriglieri, Harvard Business Review
If you are showing symptoms, you must self-isolate for a minimum of 14 days. Call a public health authority immediately. Do not visit any healthcare provider in person before you have been directly advised to by public health authorities.
Remember that a COVID-19 test is only a snapshot of your health on the specific date and time the swab was taken. No testing is perfect and a negative result doesn’t mean you haven’t been exposed to COVID-19. You can still develop symptoms days after your test was taken.
It is important that everyone practice physical distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Maintain a 2-metre distance from other people. When maintaining distance is impossible, use a face mask. Wash hands frequently and thoroughly. Avoid touching the face. If you have recently traveled outside the country, you are legally required to self-isolate for 14 days.
Previous updates can be accessed here.
Stay safe and be vigilant. The GNCC is here to support you. Contact us with any questions you have.
