Toronto reactivates Emergency Operations Centre in light of Omicron
The City of Toronto has officially reactivated its Emergency Operations Centre in light of the quickly spreading Omicron variant.
The City said in a press release that the reactivation is to help handle the expected surge forecasted in the latest Science Table modelling. The model predicts upwards of 10,000 new daily COVID-19 cases if an “immediate circuit breaker” is not introduced.
The Emergency Operations Centre requires a representative from each City division, agency and corporation to meet remotely to make decisions on behalf of their sector. The goal is to keep essential operations in the city operational, without interruption.
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Toronto Fire Chief and General Manager of the Office of Emergency Management, Matthew Pegg will continue to serve as the City’s COVID-19 Incident Commander.
“The reactivation of the Emergency Operations Centre is the prudent and right thing to do right now so that we can continue to do everything we can as a City government to protect the health of residents, the health of our economy and our health care system,” Mayor John Tory said in a statement.
COVID-19 cases in the city have been steadily rising. On December 1, the City reported 131 new COVID-19 cases. Just over two weeks later, on December 16, the City reported 755 new COVID-19 cases.
1/2: #COVID19 update: As of December 16 at 8:30 a.m., there have been 187,231 cases (755 new), 14 people are in hospital (1 new) & 3,720 deaths (0 new) & 180,347 recoveries (159 new). More on #COVID19 in TO: https://t.co/CkCG04C1q3. pic.twitter.com/MTIidZH4pV
— Toronto Public Health (@TOPublicHealth) December 16, 2021