Ontario doctors calling on Province prioritize vaccinating front-line workers, implement paid sick days

Ontario doctors are strongly urging the Province to implement recommendations made by the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table regarding mitigating the spread of the virus.

On Tuesday (April 20), the Advisory Table outlined specific measures they believe will have a positive impact on slowing the spread of the virus, as well as measures that will not.

According to the organization, in order to curb the spread of the virus, only truly essential businesses should be open, all Ontarians must have access to paid sick days—including paid time off to get vaccinated—and vaccinating essential workers and residents of hot spots should be the top priority.

Additionally, the Advisory Table is calling for the Province to prohibit entry into Ontario, as well as traveling between regions.

Further, the organization believes the Province must adopt measures that are based on science— inconsistent policies with no clear link to scientific evidence will not work.

Moreover, policies that discourage safe outdoor activity will not work, and Ontarians should be permitted to socialize—albeit physically distanced—in small groups of people from different households, visit playgrounds, and participate in outdoor team sports with masks.

“People are dying and being hospitalized at staggering rates, but those rates are not equal among all Ontarians,” Samantha Hill, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said in a news release.

“We call on the government to implement immediately all of the solutions proposed by the Science Advisory Table to stop the virus from transmitting in our workplaces and hotspot neighbourhoods. Failure to do so allows the virus to continue to spread.  Failure to do so allows more Ontarians to fall ill, need hospitalization and die.  Failure to do so risks doctors’ ability to care for any of us,” she continued.