Ontario’s COVID-19 resurgence is threatening Christmas gatherings. Will people adjust their plans? |
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| The annual Toronto Christmas Market in The Distillery Historic District has already been cancelled, along with the city’s Santa Claus parade. | |
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| Ontario’s latest COVID-19 modelling data suggests that public health officials could soon be confronted with an exceptionally difficult task: convincing weary Ontarians to scale back or cancel Christmas gatherings in the face of soaring case numbers. „In the absence of change, the chances of cases being in decline by Christmas is very, very low,” said Ashleigh Tuite, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Recommendations to strictly limit contact are likely to face a serious challenge at Christmas, which has been discussed for months as a possible reward for good behaviour during the second wave of the pandemic. Thursday’s modelling data appears to have severely lowered the chance that Ontarians can celebrate a normal Christmas, which could be a significant source of new infections based on recent trends. Earlier this fall, Thanksgiving gatherings were said to have contributed to a surge in cases about two weeks following the holiday. Samantha Yammine, a neuroscientist and science communicator known as “Science Sam” online, said that convincing people to reduce their contacts during the holidays will require a new approach from politicians and health leaders. She said people are struggling with guilt and feel increasingly hesitant to turn down requests from friends and family, due in part to what’s been widely described as COVID fatigue. „At this stage we need to be telling people what they can do and giving them the information — backed in science, backed by public health experts — to make the lowest risk possible decisions,” Yammine said. |
Ashleigh Tuite: „Toronto Christmas Market in The Distillery Historic District has already been cancelled”
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