While the timing of the announcement has some worried, other people, like the University of Toronto’s Dionne Aleman, a CHE affiliate and an expert on COVID-19 modelling and how it spreads in an urban environment, disagree.
“It’s reasonable to begin lifting capacity restrictions now with masking requirements still in place indoors,” Aleman said. “Case counts have been steady and low for a few weeks and, while we would only just now start to be able to detect any bumps from Thanksgiving, it’s unlikely that any increase in cases would be large enough to meaningfully change overall incidence rates and hospitalization numbers.”
Despite her optimism, Aleman stressed the government must be ready to act if case numbers rise again.
“As with all pandemic related decisions, the province has to be willing to reinstate capacity restrictions if case counts or hospitalizations do significantly increase two to three weeks after further reopening,” said Aleman.
Full article at: Toronto Observer