City Continues to Collaborate with Key Partners on COVID-19 Response

Nov 10, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the City of Greater Sudbury and its emergency response community partners are working together to keep the community safe and to ensure readiness for potential changes over the late fall and winter.

In mid-January, the Community Control Group (CCG) began meeting and has continued to do so at least once a week since mid-March. The CCG, which includes Mayor Brian Bigger and leaders from the City, Health Sciences North, Public Health Sudbury & Districts, and the Greater Sudbury Police Service, reviews the local status of the virus, assesses response and takes action. Their role is to establish coordinated emergency action plans in Greater Sudbury.

For the past several months, the CCG has used scenario planning to develop a pandemic response strategy for the fall/winter. To develop the plan, the team used each of the three scenarios established by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the World Health Organization:

• Peaks and valleys: continuous waves throughout 2020 and 2021, with clusters of COVID cases in places like schools and workplaces.
• Fall peak: a large wave in the fall or winter followed by successive waves.
• Slow burn: ongoing spread of the virus through periodic cases, with no specific pattern.

The CCG determined objectives and key areas of focus for the four agencies, which will be used to monitor and act on these potential virus scenarios throughout the fall and winter. The objectives for fall/winter include:

• Hospital and long-term care capacity
• Community strategies for health, wellness and equity
• Human resources support
• Critical services at City, hospital, Public Health and police
• Supply chains and PPE
• Economy preservation and recovery
• Public order and safety
• Governance and finance
• Communications

The areas of focus for fall/winter include:

• Testing, resources to perform effective contact tracing and clearing people to return to work and school
• Keep people healthy and at work
• Provide community supports
• Increase uptake of flu vaccine
• Provide protection in long-term care
• Monitor supply chains
• Plan for other potential emergencies

The CCG continues to meet weekly to ensure the local situation is addressed quickly, collaboratively and with foresight.

To view the Council update presentation on fall/winter pandemic planning, including an update on the work of the CGG, watch the November 10 Council presentation at https://livestream.com/greatersudbury/events/9375379.

For COVID-19 updates and information related to City services, visit www.greatersudbury.ca/covid or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

For the most up-to-date local information on COVID-19, visit the Public Health Sudbury & Districts website at www.phsd.ca/coronavirus.

Quotes:

“It was back on April 6 that I declared a State of Emergency for the City of Greater Sudbury, after careful consideration and conversations with the Medical Officer of Health, Councillors and other local leaders. I am proud of the work the Community Control Group has done, and continues to do, to establish emergency action plans and help our community respond to ongoing changes. Please stay vigilant and stay safe. Let’s not undo all the great progress we’ve made so far.”
- Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger

“Today marks eight months to the date since we reported the first case of COVID-19 in our area. Today we are reporting on the 186th case. Starkly, almost a third of all local cases (56) have been reported in the last week alone. We are suddenly into the second wave of COVID-19 locally. How this wave evolves and the measures and restrictions that will be necessary to control it are in our hands. Make no mistake, our everyday actions either allow the virus to spread or contain it. We can choose wisely and keep our close contacts to members of our households, we can wear a mask, keep distance, stay home when ill, and get tested if COVID-19 symptoms. We can avoid otherwise necessary, but economically and emotionally costly, restrictions. Increasing COVID-19 numbers means risking incredible stress on our public health and health care systems, our schools and our businesses, and very importantly risks the very health and lives of vulnerable people, like our grandparents, our neighbours with chronic health conditions, or the people we see every day who we know to be homeless. We can do this. Each and every one of us.”
- Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Medical Officer of Health, Public Health Sudbury & Districts

“Close cooperation and awareness continue to be needed as winter approaches and the risk of COVID remains in our community. We are in an emergency situation that continues to evolve. I thank City staff and our community partners for their ongoing commitment to responding thoughtfully, and keeping the health and safety of our community top of mind.”
- Ed Archer, Chief Administrative Officer, City of Greater Sudbury

“Early in this pandemic, we recognized the importance of having a coordinated, city-wide response guided by the experts at Public Health. That collaboration, paired with our community’s commitment to following public health advice, helped us make it through the first wave with relatively low case numbers and manageable hospitalization rates. As the case numbers hit record highs, we need to go back to following those simple rules. They will keep us going for the long haul.”
- Joseph Nicholls, General Manager of Community Safety, City of Greater Sudbury

“When we see increasing case counts in our community, we become concerned about the needs of people who may require hospitalization. It is critical for everyone to do their part and act now to lower transmission of COVID-19 in order to protect our hospitals and other health system partners from becoming overwhelmed.”
- Dominic Giroux, CEO, Health Sciences North

“I am pleased that Greater Sudbury Police Service has had the opportunity to be at the COVID-19 planning table since the beginning, working closely with our partners in local government, public health and the health-care sector to mobilize collective action. I am confident in this team’s ability to respond to a potential second wave, and I am confident in the willingness of our residents to take appropriate actions to slow the spread throughout the winter months.”
- Paul Pedersen, Chief, Greater Sudbury Police Service