City of Hamilton ends COVID-19 emergency declaration

Fred Eisenberger has ended the city’s COVID-19 emergency declaration.The action was first declared in unison with Ontario’s state of emergency enacted on March 17, 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic first began.A temporary order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA) allowed municipalities the flexibility to deploy staff where they were needed to manage the city’s vital services.Eisenberger said the measure was “not rescinded lightly” by the city and that the community still needs to be “aware and be vigilant” as it eases into a “normal state.”The change means the city will return to in-person meetings, also offered in a hybrid format, on May 25 with committee meetings coming back on the week of May 30.City advisory committees will also return the week of May 30 while full-on advisory committees will still be limited as staff work through the process of a full return.

Ontario COVID numbers: 1,555 people in hospital, 188 in intensive care The city’s mask mandate for its employees will also be lifted on May 25 with in-person public engagement allowed on the same day.“I do want to recognize the importance of this moment,” Eisenberger said in a virtual media conference on Tuesday. “It’s taken us two and half years to get here.”Public health epidemiologist Michelle Baird characterized the community’s current COVID situation as better having past the peak of transmission in the most recent wave.Case numbers, the percentage of PCR tests coming back positive and wastewater signals continue to show declines in spread of COVID.“Although transmission is decreasing, we are still in a pandemic,” said Baird.“But we are now in a phase where we are learning collectively what it means to live with COVID.