The COVID-19 pandemic

[tomh009]

10-day averages for key regions in Ontario, plus the weekly trend as of 2020-12-20 (posting this every two days).

Region	Cases today	10-day average	per 100K	Weekly trend
Windsor-Essex	172	151.0	38.8	+26%
Peel	504	455.5	33.0	+9%
Toronto	636	631.7	21.6	+4%
York	218	205.1	18.5	+29%
Hamilton	95	97.5	16.8	-25%
Niagara	41	68.2	15.2	+22%
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph	34	41.3	15.2	+8%
Durham	86	86.3	13.4	+8%
Middlesex-London	93	53.4	13.2	+60%
Halton	48	71.6	13.1	+13%
Waterloo	101	78.5	12.7	+31%
Southwestern	23	24.4	12.2	+15%
Huron Perth	14	11.7	11.9	-47%
Brant County	5	14.7	10.8	-111%
Simcoe-Muskoka	46	51.4	9.5	+27%
Eastern Ontario	6	15.1	7.4	-106%
Thunder Bay	5	8.5	5.7	+15%
Kingston Frontenac	6	10.7	5.2	-34%
Ottawa	19	37.8	3.8	-24%

[bgb_ca]

I don't see why they could not open just the grocery parts of the big box stores and fence off the rest.

I agree 100% with this. Grocery and Pharmacy only, and block off the rest of the store. If they want something that falls outside of that, curbside like the rest of the small businesses. That will help with at least one of the complaints small businesses have.

[bgb_ca]

I imagine liquor/beer stores will remain open. Last time, it seemed like the justification was that alcoholics wouldn't be able to be suddenly cut off without health risks.

As someone who knew a severe alcohol addict (They did pass away due to issues related to it), withdraws can be severe and in some cases lethal.

[panamaniac]

I don't see why they could not open just the grocery parts of the big box stores and fence off the rest.

I agree 100% with this. Grocery and Pharmacy only, and block off the rest of the store. If they want something that falls outside of that, curbside like the rest of the small businesses. That will help with at least one of the complaints small businesses have.

I seem to recall Doug Ford saying a while back that it wasn't practical for the Walmarts, etc to do this.  For the life of me, I don't understand why it would be any problem.

[bgb_ca]

I agree 100% with this. Grocery and Pharmacy only, and block off the rest of the store. If they want something that falls outside of that, curbside like the rest of the small businesses. That will help with at least one of the complaints small businesses have.

I seem to recall Doug Ford saying a while back that it wasn't practical for the Walmarts, etc to do this.  For the life of me, I don't understand why it would be any problem.

$$$$$

[panamaniac]

I seem to recall Doug Ford saying a while back that it wasn't practical for the Walmarts, etc to do this.  For the life of me, I don't understand why it would be any problem.

$$$$$

Follow the money.  'Twas ever thus.

[ijmorlan]

I don’t know about WalMart, but I know some stores block of some areas on holidays so their remaining area is under the maximum for a store to be open on holidays. I was at a Shoppers’ Drug Mart when this was happening and I wondered whether a violation would occur if I reached through or over the barrier to reach an item in the closed area.

So there is definitely precedent for closing parts of a store.

[tomh009]

Indeed, it's not difficult. And it would address the small business fairness complaint. I would have left off the "big box" and "discount" store categories and just said only grocery/pharmacy sections of stores can be open for in-person shopping. (That's not a 100% precise definition but I think it would be close enough.)

[tomh009]

TUESDAY 2020-12-21

Waterloo Region reported 87 new cases for today (14.3% of the active cases).  608 new cases for the week (+40), averaging 16.4% of active cases. 603 active cases, +130 in the last seven days.

Only 2,196 tests reported for the last four days, which must be a mistake as we have been testing 1000+ people a day since September. There was a 717/day testing report in late October, but the subsequent report was higher than usual. Anyway, we'll find out on Friday when this is next reported.

Ontario reported 2,202 new cases today, with a seven-day average of 2,266 (-10). 1,900 recoveries and 21 deaths translated to an increase of 281 active cases, and a current total of 19,300. +2,269 active cases for the week and 196 deaths. 45,265 tests (mostly Sunday testing activity) resulted in a 4.86% positivity rate. The positivity rate is averaging 3.93% for the past seven days, as compared to 3.56% for the preceding seven.

273 patients in ICU (+8) and a total hospital population of 1,005 (+84 in the past seven days).

• 172 cases in Windsor-Essex: 44.2 per 100K
  
• 504 cases in Peel: 36.5 per 100K
  
• 93 cases in Middlesex-London: 23.0 per 100K
  
• 636 cases in Toronto: 21.7 per 100K
  
• 218 cases in York: 19.6 per 100K
  
• 95 cases in Hamilton: 16.4 per 100K
  
• 101 cases in Waterloo: 16.3 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 14 cases in Huron Perth: 14.3 per 100K
  
• 86 cases in Durham: 13.3 per 100K
  
• 34 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 12.5 per 100K
  
• 23 cases in Southwestern: 11.5 per 100K
  
• 41 cases in Niagara: 9.2 per 100K
  
• 48 cases in Halton: 8.8 per 100K
  
• 46 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 8.5 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Brant County: 3.7 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Thunder Bay: 3.3 per 100K
  
• 6 cases in Eastern Ontario: 3.0 per 100K
  
• 6 cases in Kingston Frontenac: 2.9 per 100K
  
• 19 cases in Ottawa: 1.9 per 100K
  

[Coke6pk]

Indeed, it's not difficult. And it would address the small business fairness complaint.  I would have left off the "big box" and "discount" store categories and just said only grocery/pharmacy sections of stores can be open for in-person shopping. (That's not a 100% precise definition but I think it would be close enough.)

A fair number of Grocery and Pharmacy stores have long standing curbside services that run parallel to in-person shopping.  There is no reason these couldn't be treated like EVERY OTHER SMALL BUSINESS and move to curbside only.  If this government was serious (they aren't) this could be mandated.

Coke

[tomh009]

Indeed, it's not difficult. And it would address the small business fairness complaint.  I would have left off the "big box" and "discount" store categories and just said only grocery/pharmacy sections of stores can be open for in-person shopping. (That's not a 100% precise definition but I think it would be close enough.)

A fair number of Grocery and Pharmacy stores have long standing curbside services that run parallel to in-person shopping.  There is no reason these couldn't be treated like EVERY OTHER SMALL BUSINESS and move to curbside only.  If this government was serious (they aren't) this could be mandated.

They do -- albeit not with the capacity they would need if everyone were doing that. (And it wouldn't work quite as easily for the actual pharmacy counters.) Still, that would have been justifiable, even if more difficult to implement.

On a personal level, I still believe that the biggest problem is to be found within social interactions, not even the big box shopping: bars, restaurants, churches, home gatherings. The shutdown regs will help here, though whether it's enough is still TBD.

[Coke6pk]

A fair number of Grocery and Pharmacy stores have long standing curbside services that run parallel to in-person shopping.  There is no reason these couldn't be treated like EVERY OTHER SMALL BUSINESS and move to curbside only.  If this government was serious (they aren't) this could be mandated.

They do -- albeit not with the capacity they would need if everyone were doing that. (And it wouldn't work quite as easily for the actual pharmacy counters.) Still, that would have been justifiable, even if more difficult to implement.

On a personal level, I still believe that the biggest problem is to be found within social interactions, not even the big box shopping: bars, restaurants, churches, home gatherings. The shutdown regs will help here, though whether it's enough is still TBD.

I agree.  Most pharmacies do delivery, so delivery to the front door is totally do-able.

Business and schools are not the problem.  My comment was out of sympathy for the small business owners who must close/curbside, while the Wal-Mart's are wide open selling the same items.  

I was in Portugal last week, and the curfew is strictly enforced.  I went for a walk on the block around my hotel (as allowed) and was stopped by the police twice to ID myself and explain why I was out.  There were no "visiting friends/family"... anyone on the streets (pedestrian or car) were being checked to ensure compliance.  If we are going to shutdown, we should do it right.

Coke

[tomh009]

Yes. But it's not happening on Doug's watch.

[plam]

Yes. But it's not happening on Doug's watch.

Even this is too little and two weeks too late, though better than nothing. Saw something about support for small businesses, which is also important.

[panamaniac]

"Better than nothing" does not really meet my expectations of our elected officials. I will remember this at the next election.