Every day at noon for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency, a group led by Mayor George Pirie called the Timmins Health Table will issue an update.
IS CASE 59 A HOSPITAL PATIENT?
District hospital CEO Blaise MacNeil was asked to clarify the situation, with the 59th case being part of the hospital outbreak, yet being in isolation at home.
“If he’s associated with the outbreak, by definition he would’ve been a patient,” he says.
Neither the hospital or the health unit will comment on a patient’s condition or any information that might identify them.
WILL WE BE READY WHEN FORD SAYS GO?
Health officials in our region continue to say that we’re at a different stage of the coronavirus outbreak than the rest of Ontario.
So the question arises whether the Porcupine Health Unit territory will be able to start relaxing restrictions, once Premier Doug Ford gives the green light to phase one of his provincial reopening plan.
Chief nursing officer Chantal Riopel says it’s too early to tell and all criteria will have to be taken into account.
“Once the province is moving forward with the action plan,” she tells the media, “then we’ll be able to assess what that looks like in our community.”
The premier has not said when phase one might be able to go. He calls the action plan a road map, not a calendar.
TIMMINS TRANSIT SERVICE ENHANCED
The hours of service for Timmins Transit have been extended from a Sunday service to what city CAO Dave Landers calls “enhanced Sunday service” for conventional and Handy Transit buses.
“What that means is that conventional buses leave the main terminal at 6:30 in the morning, with the last bus departing for the east end at 8:30pm” Landers explains, “and this will be seven days a week until further notice.”
.”The change in this service level is expected to provide workers with more options for travel to and from essential work sites and will help with maintaining physical distancing on the buses, particularly in the mornings.”
There’s still no fare, and Landers emphasizes that the buses should only be used travel to and from essential work sites.
Here is raw audio of today’s session:
sion.
