Kieran Moore in Caribbean last week amid sixth wave, calls for public update

Ontario’s top doctor was on vacation in the Dominican Republic last week, CityNews has learned.

While there are no travel advisories to prevent Dr. Kieran Moore or anyone else from travelling to the Caribbean, his trip came as the sixth wave gained steam in Ontario and as calls grew for him to address Ontarians about surging COVID-19 case counts.

Moore did not declare the sixth wave until Monday, upon his return.

Last Wednesday, when asked about Moore’s whereabouts, Premier Doug Ford said, “He never rests.”

“He works around the clock for the people of Ontario. Yesterday, he had a meeting with all public health officers throughout the province,” and “he is on the job 24/7 looking at the figures, looking at the stats and giving myself and our cabinet advice.”

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Ministry spokesperson Denis Murphey wrote in a statement to CityNews, “Dr. Moore was on a planned personal trip last week. While away, he was in regular contact with his team, including an acting Chief Medical Officer of Health and Associate Chief Medical Officers of Health and other ministry officials who continued to assess public health indicators and advise government accordingly.”

Moore returned from his trip this past Saturday in time to address the media on Monday. It was Moore’s first COVID-19 update in nearly five weeks.

He strongly encouraged Ontarians to wear masks indoors and said that the province is in active discussions to extend the mask mandate for public transit and the healthcare sector past the April 27 date.

Even though many provinces have lifted mandates for masks in certain settings, Canada’s top doctor, Dr. Theresa Tam, said people should still wear them any time they are indoors with people they don’t live with, given the high levels of transmission all across the country.

When Moore was asked why he did not speak sooner, as daily case counts surpassed 100,000, Moore said, “the data has been available to all Ontarians, and many medical officers of health and leaders across the health system have been responding to these questions.”

CityNews and other news organizations repeatedly asked for interviews with Moore over the past five weeks but were turned down by the ministry each time.