Covid19 update Mar 30, 2020
The Employment Standards Act, 2000 was recently amended to include an unpaid, job-protected infectious disease emergency leave. This leave is available to employees who are not performing the duties of their position for certain reasons related to COVID-19, including:
SICK NOTES ARE NOT REQUIRED
· personal illness, quarantine or isolation in specified circumstances
· concern by the employer that the employee may expose other individuals in the workplace to COVID-19
· to provide care or support to certain family members for a reason related to COVID-19, including school or day care closures
· due to certain travel-related restrictions
The leave is retroactive to January 25, 2020. Employers cannot require employees to provide medical notes to prove they are eligible for the leave. Learn more.
In addition, Ontario declared an emergency due to COVID-19 on March 17, 2020. During a declared emergency, an employee may have the right to take an unpaid, job protected leave if the employee will not be performing the duties of his or her position because of the emergency and because certain circumstances apply. More information will be available soon in this guide.
Due to orders that have been issued under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, the minimum standards under the ESA that are described in this Guide may apply differently to certain employees during the declared COVID-19 emergency. You can find the orders by visiting the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act online and selecting the “Regulations Under This Act” tab.
Premier Ford has extended the Emergency Order in Effect for Ontario till at least April 14, 2020. This implies that everyone should stay at home and not venture out unless it is an emergency. For those worried about coronavirus, please take the following assesment quiz, https://covid-19.ontario.ca/.
We will continue to work in isolation, and provide services. We will accomplish as much as possible by phone, fax and other remote means. Messages will be returned. For urgent medical matters we will arrange specific assesment times. Those with fever and infection will be triaged elsewhere until protection equiptment arrives.Please continue to practice social distancing and good hygiene.
We continue to remain under an emergency order to remain at home, maintain proper hygiene and distancing. I am very impressed with how our political and medical leadership have responded to the Covid19 situation when compared to our southern neighbours, who continue to bicker and fight amongst themselves, while the situation continues to peak and the economy suffers. Seeing our prime minister on television daily, giving a calm and responsive approach, is helpful. The opposition support this effort. A similar approach is taken by the premier, and the head of my own OMA has been relentlessly mobilizing efforts and providing validated information. The medical community is mobilizing. Locally, we are preparing to bolster and support innitiatives and we will be redeployed to aid hospital congestion.
I am dissappointed how the numbers are broadcast like a factual hockey score. Simply reporting how many positive swabs were processed in a day, and how many deaths occurred without context leads to fear. The numbers are very complex and different. For numerous reasons, you cannot compare countries around the globe without considering complex variables. Much more context is needed around these numbers. This creates a fear, and overloads hospitals. It is drying up supplies needlessly that may be needed later. There is a fear based demand for testing and the results show that only about 3% are positive, and most of those are sent home.