With COVID infections now over an estimated 100,000 per day, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and the Official Opposition are calling for an updated masking policy, paid sick days and broad access to PCR testing.
“Health care workers are exhausted, and becoming infected with COVID at an alarming rate. And every bed taken by a COVID patient is another delay for someone waiting in pain for a surgery,” said Horwath. “It’s clear that Doug Ford dropped masks too soon, and we’re all paying the price — no one more so than the people waiting in pain for a surgery or procedure.”
Horwath is calling for masking in long-term care, hospitals and on transit to continue, for masks in schools to return to protect children, teachers and education workers, and for the Ford government to either reinstate masking in public places like malls, or explain why they won’t.
Horwath is also calling for at least 10 permanent paid sick days so workers can stay home at a sign of symptoms, instead of infecting their coworkers.
And Horwath is calling for broad access to PCR testing, so people know when they need to stay home, when they need to isolate from their family and friends.