Based on worst-case scenarios, the City of Toronto is planning for absentee rates of up to 60 per cent due to OMICRON.

Mayor John Tory says the city is updating its COVID-19 plan to re-deploy staff to ensure critical and essential services can continue.

“As the OMICRON variant has spread, this city like others around the world, has been planning for a possible high number of unplanned staff absences due to illness and COVID-19 isolation requirements for both critical and essential services as well as non critical and non essential services,” said Tory.

Details will be released later this week but it involves staff being redeployed to assist in vaccination clinics, city-run shelters and the city’s 10 long-term care homes.

There’s also a pool of 1,000 employees, from across the organization to call upon should they be required.

Emergency services will continue to respond to emergency calls without interruption.

Higher risk and higher priority calls will always be responded to first before lower risk and lower priority calls.