ZOOMER QUAD: A LOOK AHEAD TO OTTAWA’S FEDERAL BUDGET

Libby Znaimer is back today. She is joined by Bill VanGorder, Interim Chief Chief Policy Officer of CARP followed by Jason Lietaer, Conservative strategist and President of Enterprise.

Today: A look ahead to the 2021 pandemic budget being delivered by the federal Liberal government.  It is expected that upwards of $2-billion dollars will go towards child care. The budget will also commit to extending federal wage and rent subsidies. This is the first budget to be delivered by the Trudeau Liberals since 2019. But the real question we want to know is whether there will be any funding towards long-term care and what that might look like.

ONTARIO’S LATEST COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS AND ONTARIO LOWERS AGE ELIGIBILITY FOR ASTRAZENECA TO 40 AND OVER

Libby Znaimer is joined by Dr. Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, Dr. Alon Vaisman,  infectious disease and infection control physician at University Health Network and Dr. Amol Verma, a staff physician in General Internal Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

In the news: Ontario lowers the age eligibility for AstraZeneca to adults 40 and older. This will begin to happen at pharmacies and primary care clinics starting this Tuesday. Up until now, this particular vaccine was reserved for adults 55 and older as per the recommendation of NACI. And, we learned from the province’s COVID-19 modelling projections delivered late last week, that Ontario could see as many as 10,000 new cases per day by late May and 15,000 by June. And, the province has to walk back on certain pandemic restrictions like the closing of playgrounds and increased police powers amid public backlash.

Meanwhile, as the case numbers continue to climb amid the third wave, hospitals continue to face a mounting burden. Our medical experts weigh in on the latest. Today, the province is reporting a total of 4,447 COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths.