Ontario is reporting 2,864 cases of #COVID19 and over 47,800 tests completed. Locally, there are 803 new cases in Peel, 684 in Toronto, 285 in York Region, 133 in Hamilton and 125 in Durham.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) May 8, 2021
Pandemic errors made Canadian COVID-19 outbreak far worse than it needed to be, committee told
Poor intelligence gathering on COVID-19, faulty risk assessments on the spread of the virus, and a Public Health Agency that lacked enough scientific expertise all helped make the pandemic worse in Canada than it should have been, a parliamentary committee heard Friday.
During several hours of testimony that was critical of the federal government’s response to the outbreak, experts in national security, public health and medicine said many of the problems with Canada’s pandemic response were avoidable. And those lessons can’t be ignored as the government tries to distil the lessons from COVID-19 in hopes of preparing the country for a future health threat.
Wesley Wark, an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa who is an expert in intelligence gathering and security, said the government failed to conduct proper risk assessments of the virus, and did not heed early evidence in 2020 that the pandemic was a serious threat.
(Go incognito)
Ontario government must ‘immediately’ reopen outdoor spaces: Canadian Paediatric Society
The Canadian Paediatric Society is calling on the Ontario provincial government to “immediately” reopen outdoor recreation spaces, saying the closure is having “devastating effects” on children and youth amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an open letter posted to Twitter on Friday, the society said it “cannot overstate the extent of the mental health crisis facing our children and youth.”
