We’re nearing the one-year mark since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic and RNAO continues its unstoppable efforts to address the challenges we face in Ontario. We are proud of the central role we play in the media, and here is a summary of the issues we raised during February.

RNAO remains extremely concerned about the premature lifting of public health restrictions in large parts of the province as a third wave of COVID driven by enormously dangerous new variants is almost certain to emerge.

RNAO sent the following letter on February 10 to Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Christine Elliott to convey our thoughts and priorities regarding the rollout. We also expressed our concerns regarding the premature lifting of the lockdown.

We’ve begun a new year with even more determination to address the challenges brought forward by the relentless COVID-19 virus. RNAO continues its central role in the media, speaking about key issues and continuing our advocacy efforts to mobilize change and help bring an end to this pandemic. This is a summary of our January interventions.

RNAO has been a leading voice since the end of the first wave in summer 2020 calling on the Ontario government to engage measures to pre-empt and prevent the unavoidable second wave in the fall. We provide an update on the current context and RNAO's reaction to the latest measures implemented in the province. RNAO describes these measures as not enough, too little, too late and – since we are in an intensifying tragedy – calculated recklessness.

Since our last update on November’s media activity, RNAO has continued its extraordinary and ongoing commitment to speaking out on pressing issues that impact the public during this pandemic.

As discussed last week, RNAO continues to urge faster and stronger action than reflected in the current colour-coded COVID-19 Response Framework. RNAO is calling for a province-wide lockdown, or, at a minimum, following the Ontario Hospital Association recommendation to robustly enforce a four-week lockdown (grey zone) in every public health unit with an infection rate of 40/100,000 population or higher.

RNAO issued today a press release in response to the lockdown measures in Toronto and Peel regions announced by the government. RNAO continues to call for an aggressive and all-encompassing lockdown, followed by an effective and concerted strategy to snuff out the virus – a “COVID-Zero” strategy. The longer we wait, the more painful these pandemic cycles will be.

RNAO continues to speak out in the media about issues related to COVID-19 and our calls to the Ontario and federal governments for action regarding the alarming rise in the pandemic wave. This month, we focused primarily on two key issues: tightening restrictions in regional hotspots to slow the spread of the virus, and addressing the renewed and predictable crisis in long-term care (an issue we’ve been pushing for months – and years!). The RNAO COVID-19 press room has links to 42 media hits so far in the month of October.

RNAO has been a central voice in Ontario alerting for the need to engage action against a galloping second wave of COVID-19. You can see some of our multiple interventions in social and mainstream media -- asking for government intervention from early September -- when we warned that, baring closures of inside non-essential places, we would see disastrous results. Today, the Ontario government took action. Here is RNAO’s press release today.