More than $1.5M of goods and services donated to Toronto City staff
Toronto City staff have already received over $1.5 million in donations for housing supplies, food and personal protective equipment (PPE) to help them combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, Mayor John Tory announced the launch of a donation portal for City staff, DonateTO: COVID-19, which allows businesses and residents to make donations of products, services, and funds in support of the city’s pandemic relief efforts.
The portal was created after residents, business, and academic institutions reached out to the city asking how they can help support Toronto’s front-line efforts.
Over the last few weeks donations from Hudson’s Bay, which included 2,117 units of cookware, dinnerware, towels, bed linens, and mattresses with a value of $335,000 and Sleep Country Canada’s donation of more than $150,000 worth of mattresses, adjustable bases, bed frames, sheets, pillows and mattress protectors, both sent to the City’s Rapid Rehousing Shelter project.
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Additionally, personal care products and cleaning products for vulnerable residents valued at $330,000 from GlobalMedic in partnership with Procter & Gamble and more than 50,000 masks from Dr. Wong and the Stop Covid-19 volunteer group have also been received.
The City’s Donation Coordination Task Force, led by the Toronto Office of Partnerships working closely with Emergency Operations Centre and Purchasing and Materials Management Division, will manage and allocate all donations under the guidance and direction of the City’s Senior Leadership Team.
Residents and businesses wanting to help support the City’s coronavirus response and recovery efforts can visit toronto.ca/covid-19 to make their gift or find out more about volunteer opportunities.
Long-term care homes continue to see hardship
As city staff continue to tackle the pandemic, many essential workers are seeing continued hardship in long-term care homes across the city.
Toronto’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eileen de Villa said she felt “sincerely bad” that she did not release specific data on coronavirus-related deaths in long-term care homes during Tuesday’s press conference.
De Villa confirmed that there are two more outbreaks since Tuesday’s report, bring the total to 41 and highlighted different numbers in four long-term care facilities.
At Eatonville Care Centre there have been 54 total cases with 27 deaths, at Kipling Acres there have 23 cases and 4 deaths, and at Seven Oaks there have been 96 cases with 22 deaths.
Tory said that there must be an “all hands on deck effort” when combatting the pandemic for seniors and the community at large.
He noted that while the city experienced the fifth week of the closures and physical distancing measures, individuals are feeling the weight of the situation.
“We have come a long way, but public health experts say we have a long way to go,” Tory said. “We must continue to stay home, keep our distance from others, go out for essentials only once a week.
“It sounds simple on paper but I know all these measures are not easy to live with.”
As of April 15, there are 2,670 cases with 121 reported deaths.