Ford to make announcement with Health Minister on COVID-19 response

Premier Doug Ford will be joined by Health Minister Christine Elliott to make an announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

During Tuesday’s press briefing Ford was absent due to “an unexpected, but non-COVID-related, non-urgent, medical appointment,” his office said.

But in his absence, Elliott noted that the COVID-19 vaccine will not be mandatory in Ontario when specifically addressing healthcare settings and frontline workers.

“The premier has been very clear that he wants this to be a voluntary assumption; that people will receive it voluntarily and that we don’t want to make it a mandatory requirement,” she said at the time.

During the second wave of COVID-19, cases in the province have been over 1,000 for a few weeks with a projected 9,000 daily by the end of the year. Due to his handling of this wave, Ford’s popularity has dropped by 11 percentage points since the last poll that was done in the summer.

The press briefing will take place at 1 pm from Queen’s Park.