Thread by @dmrider

City of #Toronto's COVID-19 update with Mayor @JohnTory & public health chief @epdevilla is about to start. Star's @KopunF is covering and I'll be tweeting highlights. Livestream here

Mayor @JohnTory says he knows the hardship on businesses and workers extra restrictions big, lauds provincial and federal governments for aid programs to help them. City doesn't have same resources "but we can help"

Today city is launching togotoronto.com to find restaurants with "safe takeout or patio" service, restaurants are encouraged to sign up for free. City is also extending partnership with Ritual to help businesses increase access to commission-free pickup and delivery.

There are lots of details about the Ritual-Doordash program. I'll tweet the news release when it lands.

Tory thanks Ritual and Doordash, calls them examples of companies "doing the right thing" to help businesses and people get through the pandemic.

Now it's time for landlords, insurance companies and firm delivery firms to step up and help Torontonians, Mayor @JohnTory says. Right thing for them to do more to help people but also in their self-interest to give people breaks so their customer base survives, mayor says

Mayor turns to the latest "Toronto For All" anti-racism campaign yesterday, this one aimed at racism against Torontonians of East Asian descent. More on the campaign here thestar.com/news/city_hall…

"Our Toronto must be a city for all ... racism and discrimination have no place," here Mayor @JohnTory says, points people with questions to city website toronto.ca/antieastasianr…

"The world expects us to do better in Toronto. We expect more of each other," fighting racism, Tory says

Dr. @epdevilla going over Toronto's worrying COVID-19 figures amid fall surge. Seven-day average for new daily cases; that figure was only 40 at the beginning of September. To turn it around Toronto must act to protect biggest number of people in shortest period of time

De Villa going over need to limit the opportunity for the virus to spread. New temporary restrictions protect most people in shortest period of time. "We are asking a lot," she says, but restrictions can move Toronto closer to lower infection rates

"We are starting to see signs of increased infections," in seniors' homes, @epdevilla says. Currently outbreaks in 14 outbreaks out of about 100 long-term care homes in the city.

"The virus is hard at work trying to spread" so important to think about risk you pose when you visit a long-term care home, de Villa says. Agrees with need to visit people in LTCs but urging people to think about how to keep up contact with the lowest risk possible.

"As difficult as today's numbers are, we are entering a new phase ... one step closer to life as we would like to live it" says @epdevilla

Q: Mayo Clinic expert said virus appears to be mutating, how do you change advice to combat it? De Villa: Continue to learn about this very new virus. Look at new data, talk to labs that do testing that would reveal mutations. But we've been adapting through entire pandemic

Q: Differing from advice on "point of care"different from Toronto Public Health? De Villa - haven't been hearing that but will follow up with my team

Q: To Tory: city manager said city facing $1.5B to $1.7B financial hole for 2021, no conversations yet with other governments. When will that start? Tory: "I actually have begun those discussions", talked to PM and others in fed. govt. Need "restart 2021", new program

Mayor says officials trying to get money out the door for this year, so giving them time to do that, but will be discussions soon on helping cities in 2021.

Q: City working with Ryerson on studying municipal wastewater to gauge amount of COVID-19 in community? De Villa: City is actively participating in Ryerson research

Back to city manager's report, Tory says city doesn't have resources to tackle affordable housing, other challenges. "We're hostage to an archaic system set up in 1867 but it's the best one we've got"

Dr. de Villa says public health unit is "eager and keen" to work on city manager's recommendations affecting her people.

Q to Tory - does Toronto need more provincial funding to prevent crowding on TTC? Tory: Prov. and fed. govts. deserve credit for funding to help pandemic-struck transit. TTC has reallocated buses but eventually you run out of buses.

Now operating 92 per cent of buses half empty or less. But other buses crowded. "We're doing the best we can."

As ridership comes back up, will be hard to maintain distancing on all routes, Tory said, was always known to be the case. De Villa says Toronto Public Health continues to advise TTC on balance between managing COVID risks and ensuring transit available to people who need it.

Q: Wouldn't bringing back 170 TTC staff who remain laid off help reduce crowding concerns? Tory: TTC GM said will bring back all staff when overall demand 50% of normal ridership, are now at 37%. Adds if brought back all drivers wouldn't have buses for all of them to drive

Asked about provincial restrictions on hot zones including Toronto announced last week, @epdevilla says they made sense given local data and evidence from other places in the world ahead of us in the pandemic experience.

Q to de Villa - is it realistic that Toronto can bring the reproductive rate down to 0.9? De Villa - number has just been reduced to 1.0 (was 1.2 last week) so public health is hopeful it can be reduced further.

(Reproduction rate is how many people each infected person newly infects. If it's below 1, the virus spread will keep diminishing. If it's above 1, spread will keep growing)

Final question was re: Ottawa’s mayor urging province to reconsider 28-day restrictions on restaurants, gyms etc. Tory said he listens to de Villa and supports expert opinion of need for modified lockdown to stop exponential growth in virus spread ...

... but provincial govt. must continuously monitor data for hotspots and adjust if necessary. Tory also called provincial advisory table, who is on it, how advice to cabinet on restrictions is arrived at “too opaque”, would like more transparency, clarity. Briefing over

Just listened back to video to make sure I heard I heard Dr. @epdevilla correctly on Toronto’s “R” new-infections reproductive rate. I did. She said her team advised her it’s now 1.0. City’s monitoring dashboard shows it, at the moment, slightly higher