Toronto planning for essential, critical staff absences due to Omicron variant

The City of Toronto is implementing “proactive measures” as preparation for unplanned staff absences due to a surge in COVID-19 spread as a result of the Omicron variant.

In a release issued Wednesday, the city says the rise in cases associated with the Omicron variant will likely lead to a “possible high number of unplanned staff absences due to illness and COVID-19 isolation requirements” for various essential and critical services, among others.

As part of their updated approach, the city says it will continue to assign staff as needed to ensure key services continue. There is also a plan in place to redeploy hundreds of staff in support of these essential services.

The objective, Mayor John Tory says, is to ensure that essential and critical services — including vaccination efforts — continue to be delivered city-wide.

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“We remain steadfast in our resolve to respond to the Omicron variant and protect the health of Toronto residents,” Tory said.

“Throughout the pandemic, employees across the Toronto Public Service have worked to respond to the virus and its variants. My continued and sincere thanks goes to them all and I commend their dedication to support essential and critical City services during the holiday season and beyond.”

With hospitals dealing with staffing shortages due to COVID-19 related absences, the city says it’s working with CEOs to alleviate the time paramedics spend waiting in the ER. As a result, officials say paramedic responses to low priority calls may be delayed to respond to higher priority calls.

“The current increase in COVID-19 cases is putting staffing pressures on all sectors and services across the province,” Toronto EMS spokesperson Kim McKinnon told CityNews.

“Toronto Paramedic Services is experiencing significant offload delays at hospitals, but this is not unique to Toronto. Paramedic services across the province are facing the same challenges.”

The city says it’s temporarily implementing changes to Toronto’s response model that will see Toronto Fire frontline staff respond to “additional calls where there is no clear indication of a patient or injury identified during the call-taking process.”

If a patient is subsequently identified, fire services will call paramedics, the city confirms.

“TPS proactively monitors these pressures in real-time and takes action to reduce the impact on our service. For example, TPS Supervisors will attend hospital emergency departments experiencing off-load delays to assist in expediting the transfer of care process and releasing Paramedics,” McKinnon said.

“Residents should always call 911 when they or someone they know is facing a life-threatening medical emergency like shortness of breath, chest pain, or signs of a stroke.”

The city will also work to expand the allocation of Rapid Antigen Tests as part of its aforementioned plan.

“RATs will be used for screening purposes as part of the City’s COVID-19 workplace safety plan that also includes mandatory vaccination, daily symptom screening, physical distancing, increased masking protocols, regular cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch surfaces and hand hygiene,” officials said in the release.

Toronto Public Health is reporting 2,715 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday — the sixth-straight day of over 2,000 cases.

The city recently surpassed the 30 per cent threshold of administering booster shots to eligible citizens.