QUEEN’S PARK — Mike Schreiner released the following statement after health officials released projections for the second wave in Ontario:
“We’re at a turning point and we need the Premier to take these numbers seriously.
The Premier’s eleventh-hour push to hire more staff has me worried about the capacity of our health system to deal with these projections. Nurses and PSWs should have been hired in the summer.
The virus does not operate on a political schedule.
The decisions we make today will determine if hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, or if they can absorb the second wave and continue with regular surgeries.
The Premier should not hesitate to impose tighter restrictions on problem areas like gyms, bars and banquet halls, where the virus is spreading more quickly. Provincial inspectors must clamp down on workplaces that are forcing employees to come in when they are ill.
We must take action to contain the virus and avoid another major shutdown that small businesses won’t survive.
Health experts are doing their job, and we need the Premier to do his.”