People need second-wave action: Horwath

QUEEN’S PARK — NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Tuesday that Ontario is in desperate need of action to help Ontario cope with the second wave of COVID-19 infections.

“Yet again today, Mr. Ford didn’t announce any changes to make people safer,” said Horwath. “For people with loved ones in long-term care, for everyone waiting hours in lines for a COVID-19 test, and for parents whose child is stuffed in a class of 30 kids, Doug Ford is telling them that there are no changes coming to help them.”

Ontario’s daily case count rose to 478 cases Tuesday. 141 cases have been reported so far in Ontario’s schools, and 29 long-term care homes are now experiencing outbreaks.

“There’s so much more that could be done to make people better off right now,” said Horwath. “If I were premier today, we would be hiring thousands of long-term care staff and putting much stronger infection controls in place, lowering class sizes to no more than 15 and capping school bus capacity, opening more public health testing sites, and putting more PPE in the hands of every frontline worker. We’d be making people safer in congregate care, bolstering hospital capacity and devising a system to keep scheduled surgeries going if infections continue to grow. And we’d be giving workers the financial stability they’re going to need to get through the second wave.”

What Doug Ford did announce Tuesday was a vague promotion of flu vaccinations. Ford completely ignored concerns raised by pediatricians Monday that regular flu vaccination clinics in doctor’s offices won’t happen this fall because of physical distancing, and didn’t offer alternative plans to get millions of people vaccinated.