COVID-19: Major employers mandate vaccines as Ontario reports 650 cases

August 20, 2021NOW Staff

A person in a suit waits for a streetcar in the financial district in Toronto

Large employers in the city are starting to roll out mandatory vaccination policies as Ontario reports the highest daily COVID-19 case count in more than two months.

On August 20, the Toronto Zoo became the latest Toronto employer to announce that all staff and volunteers must disclose and provide proof of vaccination status by September 13. Anyone who is not vaccinated or does not disclose by that date must take an education session on the benefits of vaccination.

Unvaccinated staff must provide proof of a first dose no later than September 30, the Zoo said. By October 30, it will be mandatory for all staff to have received second doses.

“The Toronto Zoo will comply with its human rights obligations and accommodate employees who are legally entitled to accommodation,” reads a statement, which adds the policy is intended to protect not only visitors but “COVID-19 susceptible animals.”

The Toronto Zoo has 540 staff and 475 volunteers, a spokesperson said.

Canadian banks are also starting to roll out vaccination mandates.

The Globe And Mail reports that TD, RBC and CIBC will require employees returning to offices from remote work to be fully vaccinated. TD will also allow employees to opt for rapid testing. Details around the vaccination policies will be sent to staff in the weeks ahead and deadlines for bank staff to be fully vaccinated are either October 31 or November 1.

The mandates follow similar ones announced by the Ontario Public Service, the City of Toronto, the Toronto Transit Commission, the University Health Network (UHN) and the Hospital for Sick Children.

The City of Toronto is also offering its mandatory vaccination policy as a “workplace toolkit” for employers. All city staff are required to be fully vaccinated by October 30 except for those who have a human rights reason not be vaccinated.

However, the question remains what will happen to employees who do not have a human rights exemption and opt not to get vaccinated.

UHN is considering placing unvaccinated hospital employees on unpaid leave, but the city has yet to outline how it intends to deal with staff that do no have a human rights case for remaining unvaccinated.

Asked whether Toronto would place unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave after the October 30 deadline, Mayor John Tory told reporters on Thursday that all options are on the table.

“One of the things that is self-evident – both because of collective bargaining agreements and because of policies we adopt as a city on an ongoing basis with respect to all of our policies – is that you have a series of progressive and varied measures that you can undertake with individual employees,” he said, adding that the city regularly deals with employee issues on a case-by-case basis.

“We’re simply saying that the full range of options that is always open to the city with respect to many different policies is still open to us with respect of this policy,” Tory said. “This is a serious decision that has been taken. It’s a serious policy on a very serious matter.”

Today, I announced a mandatory vaccination policy for @cityoftoronto employees. Key dates:

? Sept. 13 ➡️ Disclose and provide proof of vaccination status
? Sept. 30 ➡️ Unvaccinated staff must provide proof of 1st dose
? Oct. 30 ➡️ Staff required to have 1st and 2nd doses pic.twitter.com/X6hcT9RWzE
— John Tory (@JohnTory) August 19, 2021

Ontario reports 650 new COVID-19 cases on August 20

The vaccination mandates come as Ontario’s COVID-related hospitalizations and daily case counts rise and the vaccination rate drops off.

On Tuesday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore paused the economic reopening plan on Tuesday, and announced what he called a “suite” of mandatory vaccination policies for health-care workers, long-term care workers, teachers, child-care workers and public employees.

Employees in these sectors must either provide proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 or a documented medical reason for not being vaccinated.

If an individual does not provide proof of full vaccination, they must undergo regular rapid COVID-19 testing and “demonstrate continued negative results,” Moore said, characterizing the policies as a “baseline” that employers can expand upon.

Moore added that the fast-transmitting Delta variant now accounts for 90 per cent of test specimens and warned Ontarians to prepare for “a difficult fall and winter.”

Four days later, the province’s vaccination rate remains relatively unchanged. To date, 82 per cent of all eligible Ontarians age 12 and up have had one dose and 74 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to the Ministry of Health.

In the past week, the number of fully vaccinated eligible Ontarians has risen 1.6 per cent, Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table reports.

Meanwhile, Ontario confirmed a single-day increase of 650 new infections, the highest daily case count since June 6. Of those, 426 are not vaccinated, 64 are partially vaccinated, 103 are fully vaccinated and 57 have an unknown vaccination status.

There are now 197 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals, up from 123 a week ago. Of the total number of patients in hospital, 152 are unvaccinated, 18 are partially vaccinated and 26 are fully vaccinated, according to the province’s data.

The seven-day moving average for new cases is now 518, up from 399 last Friday. The virus has killed two more people in the past day, bringing the provincial death toll to 9,450.

The testing positivity rate has also risen in the past week, from two per cent last Friday to 2.4 per cent today.

In more positive news, the rate of case growth has slowed from eight days to 17 days, the Science Advisory Table reports. The total number of confirmed active cases is 4,447, up from 3,110 a week ago.

The Science Table also estimates the number of cases caused by the Delta variant is 93.2 per cent.

According to the latest Public Health Ontaria data, the number of breakthrough infections (cases in people fully vaccinated people that occur 14 days after the second dose) accounted for 0.6 per cent of cases between December 14, 2020 and August 7, 2021.

More than 95 per cent of confirmed cases over the same period were unvaccinated.

Earlier this week, the city of Toronto said 98.7 per cent of hospitalized COVID-19 cases with known vaccination status since May 1 were not fully vaccinated.