Head of Ont. science table says he won't support further easing of COVID-19 restrictions due to fourth wave

Lindon Persaud receives a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccine clinic in Toronto's Jane and Finch neighbourhood, in the M3N postal code, on Saturday, April 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

TORONTO -

The head of Ontario’s science advisory table says that he will not support any further easing of public health measures given the recent rise in case counts driven by the more infectious Delta variant.

The Doug Ford government has said that it plans to lift virtually all remaining restrictions, including capacity limits, once it reaches a handful of vaccination targets – 80 per cent of those eligible with one dose, 75 per cent of those eligible with both doses and at least 70 per cent of eligible residents fully vaccinated in all 34 public health units.

But during an interview with CP24 on Wednesday, the scientific director of the science table Dr. Peter Juni seemed to suggest that some of the restrictions could remain in place due to arrival of what he says is clearly a fourth wave of the pandemic.

His comments come after Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore suggested that the province could hit the targets required for a more wide scale reopening within seven to 10 days.

“Right now just looking at everything and talking to my colleagues we can’t see any further reopening considering that our effective reproduction number is at 1.5,” Juni said on Wednesday. “We need to be very careful that we don’t have further explosive growth.”

COVID-19 infections have been on the rise for weeks now and Juni said that case counts are now doubling every 10 to 14 days with transmission largely concentrated in unvaccinated populations.

He said that while there is “no need to panic” at this point given that a rise in cases was somewhat inevitable following the reopening of many businesses, there is a need for caution.

He said that this is especially true in school and child care settings, where children under 12 remain unvaccinated.

“We see signals in the U.S. which are not reassuring (a rise in pediatric admissions at hospitals) and it may be that we will find out you know in a few weeks or months that children have also an increased risk of more severe COVID coming (from Delta),” he said. “This means right now have to try to keep schools as safe as we for those below the age of 12 who didn't have an opportunity to get vaccinated, meaning all the parents should get vaccinated, all the school staff should get vaccinated and we can't you know just let case numbers grow too high because if you have a lot of community transmission you eventually are going to introduce transmission into schools.”

The Ford government has said that it plans to allow all school-aged children to return to classes five days a week in September, though remote learning still has to be offered as an alternative.

Juni, however, said that the province will have to monitor things very carefully to ensure that the “really scary” challenges being seen in some U.S. states experiencing a surge in pediatric cases and hospitalizations don’t present themselves here.

“Your chance of getting infected if you remain partially vaccinated or unvaccinated is 80 to 90 per cent during the next six to 12 months,” he warned.