On Wednesday, we emerged from a COVID-19 state of emergency in Timmins.
Let’s backtrack a bit, finding out what it meant in the first place.
Emergency management coordinator Tom Laughren says a declaration doesn’t free up any money or authority. It does, however, give the city some flexibility to take over work usually done by volunteers – feeding the homeless, for instance.
“And ensuring that if you had sectors where you had to move people around from say one department to another, that you had the ability to be able to do that,” he explains.
Laughren notes that we’re better prepared to fight off a second wave, by continuing the practices that have become commonplace: hand washing, physical distancing, limited crowd sizes and wearing masks.
“We definitely were able to flatten the curve, which was the goal right off the bat,” he proudly states. “We didn’t impact the health care system greatly. We can prevent a second wave by practicing all the health care measures, and ensure that we don’t overwhelm those systems.”
The state of emergency was in effect for 138 days.