Canada’s chief medical officer suggests “holiday-hacks” ahead of Thanksgiving

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, issued a statement today to advise of “holiday-hacks” Canadians ahead of Thanksgiving weekend.

“There have been 164,471 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 9,462 deaths,” Dr. Tam said in the statement. “As we head into a new week, with Thanksgiving weekend close, we’ve got some serious planning to do. Not the carefree planning we had last Thanksgiving but rather some ingenious Canadian COVID-19 ‘holiday-hacks’ that will ensure there are no viruses invited or passed around at our gatherings.”

Hacks that Dr. Tam suggest include:

• If you must gathering indoors, parties are safest when small and select.
• Gathering outdoors will be safest if well spaced.
• Set up in an open space where each contact bubble is no closer than the length of a picnic table apart.
• Don’t share food or objects, “Bring-Your-Own” is safer.

Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 566 new cases of COVID-19 today.

Toronto accounts for 196 new cases, 123 in Peel and 81 in Ottawa.

62% of today’s cases are in people under the age of 40.

There are 534 more resolved cases.

Daily regional numbers including Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, and Haldimand-Norfolk can be viewed in the chart below.