May 5, 2020

FEDERAL

The Prime Minister announced more than $252 million in emergency aid for the agri-food sector; included in this funding announcement is:

o $77.5 million Emergency Processing Fund to food processors of varying sizes, including meat packers, to retrofit factories, purchase PPE for workers to meet health guidelines and deal with the backlog of livestock due to decreased demand

o An initial investment $125 million to a national AgriRecovery fund – a federal-provincial-territorial program aimed at helping farmers during disasters

o $50 million to a new Surplus Food Purchasing Program which aims to develop a chain of distribution that purchases large quantities of certain products at risk of spoiling and redistributing them to areas in need like food banks

· The federal government will increase the Canadian Dairy Commission’s borrowing capacity by $200 million to store and produce milk, butter and cheese to help producers from dumping milk; the government will work with opposition parties to achieve the required legislative change

PROVINCIAL

The provincial government announced an investment of $12 million in virtual and online mental health supports

o The Premier acknowledged the difficulty all Ontarians are experiencing during the pandemic, including managing stress and anxiety

o Ontarians are not alone and the provincial government will support Ontarians to get through this together

o Rolling out expanded safe access to those critical supports at no cost to patients

o Working closely with hospitals and Ontario Health to provide online peer support groups and access to mental health workers

o All Ontarians will have mental health supports they need for their mind and body

· Tomorrow, there will be a virtual Highway of Heroes ceremony at 2:15 p.m. to pay tribute to the Canadian Armed Forces members who died last week

o The ceremony will be live-streamed via the Canadian Armed Forces Facebook channel

YORK REGION

· Continue to update york.ca/covid19 with new information including:

o Interactive Dashboard – Cases: There is now a breakdown of York Region’s cases showing “Total Active Cases” and “Resolved”

Positive news around our region:

· Today York Region launched the first in a series of videos to recognize and thank our staff, residents and community partners for their dedication, kindness and positivity throughout these challenging days

· Organizations around our Region are demonstrating their #SpiritofYR:

o Erie Meat Products Ltd, one of Canada’s largest meat processors, paid a visit to the @NewmarketFoodPantry on May 4, dropping off a donation of 1,600 lbs. of meat to help community members in need

· York University awards $300,000 in grants for 20 new COVID-19 research projects across Canada

COVID-19 IN YORK REGION

Below is a summary of the detailed information contained in the Interactive Dashboard – Cases at york.ca/covid19

In York Region as of May 5, at 5 p.m. there are:

1,689 confirmed cases 37 new cases* since yesterday73 confirmed cases in hospital, 15 of which are in Intensive Care 89 cases among health care workers

· 2 new fatalities

· 122 total confirmed deaths

797 resolved cases, which equals about 47%

· 39 institutional outbreaks under COVID-19 protocols:

o 16 Long-Term Care/Retirement Homes

o 22 Community Care Settings

o 1 Hospital

· 6 institutional outbreaks declared over

*Data quality is an on-going process and may result, from time to time, in our reported case numbers not matching up day-over-day.

The comprehensive list of outbreaks (including the number of resident and health care worker positive cases) is available on york.ca/covid19 The data can be filtered by municipality.

To access this list, select the blue drop-down menu titled Interactive Dashboard – Outbreaks in Long-Term Care and Community Care Settings

As of this morning, there are:

· 18,310 total cases (12,779 resolved); with 1,361 related deaths in Ontario

· 61,159 total cases (387 increase in last 24 hours); with 3,915 related deaths in Canada

· Over 3.5 million total cases worldwide with cases in 215 countries, areas or territories; 243,540 related deaths with 1.1 million recoveries

KING TOWNSHIP

Remains unchanged with 22 total, 18 of which are resolved, sadly 2 deaths and only 2 active cases. Please let’s keep to this, thanks for everything you are all doing!