okay good afternoon everyone I am Nancy Polsinelli interim CAO for the region of
Peel I'm joined today by Jessica Hopkins our regions of medical officer of Health
and the mayors of our partner municipalities Mayor Bonnie
Crombie City of Mississauga Mayor Alan Thompson town of Caledon and councillor
14e acting on behalf of Mayor Patrick Brown as acting mayor we're here to
share information about kovat 19 we want the community to know that the region
and its partners are working together to support and protect the health of the
people within our region more than 1.4 million people the region is ensuring we
are positioned to respond to the potential for transmission within our
community yesterday we informed council that we have fully activated the
regional Emergency Operations Center this does not mean that the Region of
Peel has declared a state of emergency we have not this is about focusing
resources effectively in both mitigating the transmission of kovat 19 while
operating the services that people depend on to do this we are working very
closely with the region and its partner communities led by the mayors with us
today dr. Hopkins will now provide an update on the status of Kovan 19 in our
community dr. Hopkins thank you good afternoon with the announcement of the
Cova 19 pandemic by the World Health Organization increasing cases on in
Ontario particularly related to travel and unprecedented measures to protect
the health of Ontarians at this time Peel Public Health is recommending
additional preventive public health measures to reduce the spread in the
community in consultation with local health care institutions and education
leader peel public health is recommending the
closure of child care centers before and after school programs and March Break
camps effective March 14th through April 5th coinciding with the school closure
dates the chief medical officer of Health for Ontario has recommended the
immediate suspension of all large events and public gatherings of over 250 people
for events in public gatherings less than 250 people peel public health is
directing organizers to assess the risk further guidance is available on our
website the chief medical officer of Health for Ontario is further advising
residents to avoid all non-essential travel outside of Canada in addition
Peel Public Health is recommending anyone that has travelled anywhere
outside of Canada to self-monitor for symptoms including fever cough and
difficulty breathing and avoid attending locations where it is difficult to
distance yourself from others such as schools workplaces and mass gatherings
for 14 days after returning to Canada at this time this means that for those
travelling for March Break and hoping to attend school or work on April 6th and
Pele you should return to Canada by March 23rd
anyone who has travelled outside of Canada and experiences symptoms should
self isolate until they have been free of symptoms for a full 24 hours our
emergency departments and assessment centers are currently very busy so I'd
like to reiterate the advice to the community if you have no symptoms of
respiratory illness and have not been given different direction by public
health you do not need to call Public Health and you should not seek testing
for kovat 19 if you have mild symptoms of respiratory illness for which you
would not normally seek medical care please stay home until you've been
symptom free for at least 24 hours it's important for workers to follow the
direction of their employers occupational health and safety and this
is especially true for our health care workers if you have moderate to severe
symptoms of respiratory illness and require medical care please make sure
that your health care provider is aware that you've traveled to an affected area
or been in close contact with someone with kovat 19 so
that they can take appropriate infection prevention and control precautions there
are currently six cases of kovat 19 in peel all of the peel cases travel to
affected areas or had close contact with a case of Kovan 19 and all are in self
isolation and recovering at home the wrist can peel continues to remain
low and there are no known cases of community transmission and peel these
recommendations are being made to further enhance prevention measures to
keep our community safe and healthy thank you and I'll turn it over to Mayor
Bonnie Crombie Thank You dr. Hopkins and thank you Nancy
as I'm sure you can all appreciate this is a rapidly evolving situation and in
the past 48 hours the landscape here at home and across the world has changed
drastically and cases across the province have risen dramatically peel
public health and our partners at in health care Trillium Health Care have
been working around the clock to treat and reduce the further spread of kovat
19 in our community and I want to thank them for their efforts because this is
not an easy job as elected officials and public health experts it's our duty to
act in the best interests of the people that we serve and that means making
decisions proactively to protect the health and the safety of our residents
health is everything without it nothing else matters I ask residents to please
remain calm the directive by our medical officer of Health to cancel March Break
camps and close before and after school care and day care centers is the right
decision I and I understand that this will have an impact on families we are
asking that employers please be patient and understanding as parents and
families work to arrange care for their children
many businesses will have already established work from home policies as
haves the City of Mississauga in addition today's announcement by dr.
Hopkins Mississauga will be taking additional measures to protect our
residents the City of Mississauga has made the decision to close all city
recreation library and cultural facilities to the
public effective tomorrow Saturday March 14th for three weeks until April 5th at
this time City Hall will remain open we are working to communicate these
closures to our staff and are working on to minimize impacts to ensure fair
compensation my way transit will remain fully operational our buses are still
safe to ride there will be no changes to service levels at this time we will
continue to enhance microbial cleaning we ask residents for their patience and
their understanding your health is of utmost importance and I cannot stress
this enough please practice social distancing avoid large social events and
any non-essential travel that includes unfortunately your mark breach March
Break plans as dr. Hopkins mentioned these are precautionary measures and the
risk to the public remains low peel public health will continue to provide
updates at Peel Region dot CA / coronavirus for information about the
City of Mississauga facility closures visit Mississauga dot CA / coronavirus
if UF health concerns contact peel public health at nine zero five seven
nine nine seven seven zero zero we will rise to the challenge as a city as a
province and as a nation to overcome this please be kind and think of others
the young the elderly the pregnant woman and those with compromised immune
systems we have seen the compassion and the kindness and others in times of need
I know that you will all come together to flatten the curve and keep our
community happy healthy and our economy running thank you very much and over to
mayor of Khalid and Alan Thompson
Thank You mayor Crombie and like Mississauga Caledon has followed the
advice of dr. Hopkins we have closed all our facilities for recreation and
library and where Town Hall will remain open
we're there to serve our community the best way we know how
there'll be some staff that will be working from home as is needed I
encourage everybody to be remain calm we all need to be responsible we need to be
diligent there's no time for panic what we need to do is be very careful with
why do places as high populated areas in dense areas we need to really respect
our seniors to keep them health and safety as well as pregnant women as well
as people that are very susceptible that have been you know recovering from
illnesses like cancer we need to protect our community keep it safe and that's
the responsibility that I think on behalf of all councils is to keep our
community safe but we can't do it alone we need the public to be part of that so
we're asking everybody to be extremely diligent please keep your hands clean
you know there's lots of opportunity for that but we're asking everybody to
follow the advice that is going to be constantly coming out from dr. Hopkins
and municipal staff from all municipalities and that you've heard the
same number nine oh five seven nine nine seventy seven hundred if there's any
issue that you might have reach out to public health that's where you should be
do not be going to your family doctor check with public health first thank you
I will now turn it over to councilor Fantini the acting mayor of Brampton
thank you and good morning good afternoon sorry so on behalf of Patrick
brown in the state council weird also following the same steps for safety
other of our residents so all our recreation center camps through March
16th to March to April 5th will be closed and this other changes welcomed
our committees City Hall will also be closed most of our staff will be working
from home our fire transit and emergency will be on schedule as today unless
other changes come forward so uh and unless other changes come on the 5th
until now everything will be we're gonna follow the same soft
footsteps as our region appeal and Mississauga's doing so thank you so on
that note I know dr. Hopkins as well as the mayor's are well open we are open
for questions if you have any questions
hi this is Karen Martin Robbins from the Caledon Enterprise hi there hi I had a
question for dr. Hopkins you had mentioned that as of today there
were six cases confirmed cases in peel according to the Ontario public health
there's now ten is that number not correct so the ministry is updating
twice a daily and then public health is following with those as well okay hey
Colonel here from the Mississauga news can I ask a question go ahead a question
for mayor crombie and perhaps for dr. Hopkins as well we've said kind of be as
social distancing practice kind of takes over here
the folks should stay away from work or other kind of crowded places if they do
feel they have symptoms of covert 19 how concerned are you that folks may kind of
take just just take a risk knowing that Canada so they miss a paycheck or are
concerned about the consequences of not showing up to work it's very good
question Steve so we are encouraging people all all of our residents to work
from home as they can certainly there are people who are many people who are
self-employed in the City of Mississauga I know most of our large companies we
have 98 thousand businesses 1,400 multinationals 75 fortune 500 many of
them have given the same using the same protocol
as issued by peel public health and certainly we are encouraging people to
use their discretion and not to attend large gatherings I know myself I believe
mayor Thompson certainly mayor Brown and others have reduced the number of public
events we will be attending we are not shaking hands etc and I'm quite certain
that most employers in the region appeal have taken the advice appeal public
health and are encouraging their employees to do the same perhaps I'll
just add to mere Crombie's comments so when you look at the workplace yes of
course we want to pay attention to the significance this could have in terms of
an economic impact when your employees are healthy they're able to work and so
for those that have opportunities to have alternate work arrangements or work
from home or do social distancing within the workplace we encourage that because
if your employees sick they can't they can't work at that time so we're really
focused on trying to keep people healthy
are there any other questions on the phone line
okay sorry alright so if there are no further
questions I want to thank everyone for joining us today and thank you to dr.
Hopkins and the mayors and counselor for the 14e on behalf of Mayor Brown thank
you