Bruce Lauckner: Latest News

Karen Redman has announced that Waterloo Region’s COVID-19 state of emergency will finally be declared over on Friday.On Twitter, she said, “With COVID-19 indicators trending in the right direction, I will be rescinding the State of Emergency on Friday, May 27, 2022.” COVID-19: No end in sight for Waterloo Region’s state of emergency Redman noted that the state of emergency was initially declared on March 25, 2020, in response to the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.“Over the last two years, our community has come together to fight COVID-19, making many personal sacrifices and stepping up to get vaccinated,” Redman wrote, noting that Waterloo Public Health would continue to provide guidance in the ongoing fight against the virus.Back in March, most of the municipalities that make up the region as well as Guelph and Brantford all declared an end to their state of emergencies but Redman and Waterloo Region CAO Bruce Lauckner said it was too soon for the region to follow suit.Lauckner noted that it allowed them to be more flexible with staffing in local shelters and hospitals as many were still dealing with the virus while others had worked extra hours to assist.“I prefer to err on the side of caution and allow for some recovery time, allow for some people to recoup. And that may require us to still shift resources to give that time off,” he said in March.

COVID-19 in those cities, local officials say it may be a while before it is lifted in Waterloo Region.“I think it’s important that each municipality look at the reasons that the emergency declaration was in place and every municipality is different,” CAO Bruce Lauckner told reporters on Friday morning, while noting that the region has talked to the other municipalities it contains about the situation.He then went on to provide an example as to why the move will come later, rather than sooner.“We still need to move staff around to support our shelter systems from time to time because COVID is still active,” Lauckner said. Interactive — Inside COVID's rehabilitation hospitals “So as we have confidence that the shelter systems, the hospitals, that our vaccine clinics and so on, no longer require operational support like that, then that would be a reason for us to and the emergency declaration.”He also noted that while the pandemic has eased, many of the people working on the front lines have been dealing with it for two years now.“So I think the worst thing we could do (is end the state of) emergency right now and then find out next week that we still have to move people,” he said.

COVID-19: Ontario assisting about a dozen long-term care homes as 1st-dose deadline hits  Monday was the initial deadline for workers to be fully vaccinated, but the Ministry of Long-Term Care pushed that date to Dec. 13.The region, which runs the long-term-care home, says it has been encouraging staff to get vaccinated.“We have supported staff through the process of getting their vaccination and I am pleased that we were able to raise our numbers and get more staff vaccinated,” Region CAO Bruce Lauckner said.“Unfortunately, some staff made the decision to remain unvaccinated.