Ontario received two pieces of good news Tuesday as the WHO lifted a travel advisory against Toronto and, hours later, the provincial government announced a $118-million SARS recovery package to help the embattled province get back on its feet.
The World Health Organization announced it was lifting the advisory Tuesday afternoon after a week of anger by Toronto politicians and lobbying efforts by Canadian health officials.
Later in the afternoon, Ontario Premier Ernie Eves announced a package that will provide $118-million in assistance and recovery for those affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The Prime Minister answers questions Tuesday on severe acute respiratory syndrome during a news conference with Minister of Health Anne McLellan in Toronto. (Teresa Barbieri/AFP)
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"We believe these [measures] will help to convince [people] that Toronto is indeed a safe and great place to visit," Mr. Eves said.
Also included in the package are tax exemptions on Toronto accomodations and event admissions from May 1 to Sept. 30, and full coverage for all health workers affected by SARS.
Mr. Eves's announcement came after Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman cheered the decision by the WHO to remove the travel advisory. "Today’s decision underscores what we’ve been saying for the last several days: Toronto is a safe city in which to live, work and play,” Mr. Lastman said.
Officials at the WHO in Geneva agreed that new information presented to them by a delegation of Canadian health officials at the world body headquarters Tuesday has convinced them that Toronto is safe.
“We will be lifting the travel advice for Toronto, Canada, effective tomorrow [Wednesday],” Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the WHO, said from Geneva.
Factors included in the consideration included a drop in the number of probable SARS cases, a total of 20 days since the last case of community transmission and no new confirmed cases exported from Toronto, she said. The 20-day mark is key to getting the travel advisory — in place since last Wednesday — lifted. The WHO wants to see two periods of the disease’s 10-day incubation period to pass before it believes an affected area is safe to visit.
The removal of the advisory came with a warning from the WHO.
“I need to remind you that Toronto still has an outbreak of SARS, and the lifting of this travel advice does not change the reality that Toronto has a status as an affected area,” Dr. Brundtland said.
She said she has discussed with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien new measures to implement stricter screening procedures at airports including interviewing passengers. Currently, passengers are provided with information on cherry-coloured cards.
"WHO has also been assured by Canadian authorities that pro-active screening measures at airports will be implemented, as recommended by WHO," the organization said in a statement Tuesday.
Mr. Eves had earlier mused about the possibility of the announcement, suggesting during a scrum in Toronto that a conditional lifting of the advisory was a possibility.
He said he thought the WHO was concerned about Canada’s screening efforts for severe acute respiratory syndrome at its airports.
“They could, I guess, have a conditional lift, I suppose, if we put screening in airports across the country,” Mr. Eves said. Sources in his office leaked news of the lifting of the advisory about 30 minutes before it was made.
Dr. Brundtland said considerations taken by the world body when reviewing travel advisories on several other countries Tuesday also included the number of SARS cases in an area, the last dates of cases where community transmission occurred, and the last date of exported cases.
Based on those criteria, Hong Kong, Beijing and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Shanxi province will remain under travel advisories, she said.
At a press conference in Geneva following the announcement, Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement said that part of the reason that the advisory was lifted because of successful containment of the disease within the health community. Besides transmission to health-care workers, there has not been a spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the community in 20 days, since April 9, double the incubation period for the disease.
He encouraged people to come back to Toronto. “Our doors are open,” Mr. Clement said in Geneva.
Dr. D’Cunha said that in their presentation, the Canadian delegates assured the WHO that the number of cases has dropped dramatically and that cases are not being transmitted within the general community. As of Monday, the province had only 39 probable SARS cases and 498 people in quarantine.
Meanwhile Tuesday, Health Canada's Dr. Paul Gully told a Senate Committee meeting in the United States about Canada's future plans to contain SARS.
He said in order to prevent a repeat of the outbreak, health workers will isolate cases immediately."Rapid isolation of a suspected case is going to be one of the hallmarks of how we continue to contain this," he said, adding, "We don't think it [SARS] will go away."
Health officials will also work harder to maintain communication between themselves and all levels of government.
"[We will] assure the public that we have methods to contain and control [the disease]," Dr. Gully said.
On Wednesday, a group of WHO officials are expected to arrive in Toronto to see first-hand what is being done in the city to contain the disease, including Dr. David Heymann, the organization’s head of communicable diseases.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Toronto have begun to return to normal as the worst of the disease’s spread appears to be over.
For the first time in weeks, hospital workers at Mount Sinai Hospital were allowed to take off facemasks in parts of the hospital where they are not around patients. And at Toronto’s Sunnybrook and Women’s hospital, a quarantine order was removed. The facility’s SARS, critical care and cardiovascular surgical units were reopened.
With reports from Richard Mackie and Canadian Press
