Toronto’s library system will close nearly half of its branches due to COVID-19-related staff shortages, while the city’s public service as a whole prepares for the possibility of more than half of its staff falling ill. during the Omicron wave of the virus.
The Toronto Public Library said Tuesday that 44 branches will be temporarily closed starting next Monday and that staff will be reassigned to keep the 52 “largest and most widely used” branches operational as infections and isolates continue to rise. COVID-19.
A list of branches that will close is online here.
Branches that remain open will offer full services, TPL said in a press release, as did mobile library Y Home library services , digital collections, online programs Y Reply line.
Toronto residents age 13 and older who do not have a library card can sign up for a digital access card online.
Also Tuesday, the city of Toronto in a statement said that “like all cities in the world, it has been planning a large number of unplanned staff absences due to illness or COVID-19 isolation requirements for both critical and essential services. . as non-critical and non-essential services. “
Mayor John Tory said at a pandemic briefing that the city is already feeling the impacts of staff absences from services, including vaccination clinics and staff redeployment to ensure essential and emergency services continue.
Tory said the city’s worst-case scenario sees 50 to 60 percent of the roughly 32,000 active employees out of work due to COVID-19.
City leadership is “laser focused” on redeploying staff from divisions including parks, forestry, and recreation to ensure the continued operation of homeless shelters, long-term care homes, and health clinics. vaccination, Tory said.
Emergency services will continue uninterrupted, but firefighters, who are fully trained in life-saving skills, will be dispatched to lower-priority calls to 911 to ensure paramedics are free to go to the most extreme situations.
“Response times, particularly for low-priority calls, may increase from pre-pandemic levels,” the city said in a Press release.
The Toronto Zoo announced Tuesday that while it could keep outdoor areas operational under pandemic provincial restrictions announced Monday, all facilities will close from Wednesday until at least January 27.
The total closure is necessary, the zoo said, “to maintain critical staffing levels in essential areas related to the care and well-being of our animals and infrastructure.”
Reference-www.thestar.com