Toronto Mayor John Tory has announced the end of the city of Toronto’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, which was first imposed on March 23, 2020.



The city had been under an emergency declaration for 777 days.

“There is no doubt that our collective efforts have been successful in getting us to a better place,” said Tory at a COVID-19 briefing Monday morning at Nathan Phillips Square with Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health.



“The state of emergency gave us flexibility with respect to the public servants and being able to put them where they were needed the most,” said Tory, noting some 1,700 city workers were redeployed to effectively respond to the pandemic.



All but 40 of the workers who were redeployed at the start of the pandemic have returned to their original roles, Tory said, adding that he is grateful to city staff and the unions for agreeing to the emergency redeployment.



Jason Chan, acting president of CUPE Local 79, which represents more than 20,000 city workers, said in a statement to the Star that city staff deserve to be recognized for their courageous efforts.



“When asked, city of Toronto staff stepped up quickly to learn new roles, accepted redeployments that put them on the front lines of combating the pandemic and kept city services operating through a very difficult time,” he said.



Tory also cited the city’s high vaccination rates — the city had recently surpassed seven million vaccine doses administered — as to why the city is lifting the emergency declaration, which was the first issued in the city’s history.



The emergency declaration gave Tory broad powers, including the ability to issue emergency orders related to the COVID-19 crisis and pass bylaws related to the crisis — without the approval of council.



The mayor’s emergency orders at the start of the pandemic included a bylaw making it illegal for people not from the same household to get within two metres of each other in parks and public squares.



The emergency powers were set to expire after 30 days but were extended by city council on April 30, 2020 until the city’s COVID-19 municipal emergency had ended.



The lifting of the state of emergency signals the city has reached another stage in the management of the pandemic, Tory stated at the press briefing. However, he noted the end of the declaration does not change current COVID-19 regulations, which are still in place.



The decision to end the emergency declaration was made in consultation with de Villa, city manager Chris Murray and the city’s strategic command team, Tory said.



De Villa said the team met regularly throughout the pandemic, and that the decision to lift the declaration was based on several considerations.



“It’s a series of things taken together that really look at whether we have the resources we need in place and whether we have the ability to move those resources effectively in order to provide a good and effective response,” de Villa said.



She also noted Toronto’s COVID-19 indicators are either decreasing or holding stable. According to the latest Toronto data from last week, wastewater signals at all four wastewater treatment plants in the city are decreasing.



“These are positive signs that coupled with this warmer weather, give us hope that COVID-19 activity in the city will continue to decrease,” she said at the briefing.



However, she stressed that Torontonians must ensure they are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations, noting that evidence suggests natural protection provided by a previous COVID-19 infection may be evaded by the Omicron variant.



Since the start of the pandemic, the city has recorded more than 324,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 4,200 deaths.

Though the emergency declaration has lifted, Tory said the city’s fight against COVID-19 has not ended. “We know that COVID-19 is still active in the city. The work that we have been undertaking will not stop,” he said.