Colleagues and friends – It has been a long haul and this blog and all of us at RNAO have walked with you every step of the way! I started the COVID-19 updates on January 27, two days after the first Ontario case was announced. For a period of three months, until May 1, we kept an almost daily schedule for the updates. During the month of May we kept a schedule of three times a week, and in June we have moved to a schedule of once a week.

We received the following message from Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician, inviting health providers to add their signature to a petition calling on mandatory masks in Canada in three high-risk settings: all indoor spaces outside the home, crowds, and public transit. We support this request wholeheartedly and I already signed and urge you to do the same! And – as important – let’s start to personally abide by this call.

Update on pandemic pay: Today we received an update from government on their response to the concerns on pandemic pay raised by a number of groups. You can see the new guidelines for pandemic pay in a slide show here.