The Opening of Retail Stores in Ontario Should Not be a Free-For-All
How Premier Ford and Public Health Ontario Failed To Prepare Retailers & Staff for The “New Normal”
When was the last time you saw your mother or father in real life? I am not including a 10 foot plus greeting from the driveway, or while in a raincoat in their backyard. I am fortunate that my extremely active 84 year old mother lives with my oldest brother. I have four siblings, many nieces and nephews (my surrogate children), and I miss them all. Will we soon get to the point where we can visit family and friends again? I believe it’s within our reach, which is why I am writing this piece.
Flattening the Curve Further
Ontario COVID19 daily new case numbers seem stuck in the mid 300–400s. Dr. Jennifer Kwan regularly charts Ontario’s new COVID19 cases, resolved cases, deaths, testing, etc — She’s a biostatistical workhorse. Her efforts have helped inform Ontario’s medical community and our press especially (Figure 1). We should be asking ourselves, what is Ontario not doing that is contributing to our ongoing epidemic? At least 26,866 confirmed infected, 17 % health care workers, and at least 2,189 are dead.
In one of Ontario’s “hotspots” where I live in Windsor-Essex, we have had 4 days in a row of community transmission limited to 7 or fewer cases for the first time since March (Figure 2). (I am not including an outbreak among migrant farm workers who would be largely segregated.) We have had a new case numbers as high as 189 per 100,000 persons, 4th highest in the province. So many personal sacrifices have been made to get us to this point: 69 deaths locally, 927 infected including 222 (24%) health care workers! Our operational field hospital at a local college campus has now closed, and hospitalized patient numbers are on the decline. I am hopeful that new cases will continue to fall but have ongoing concerns.
Maintaining Our Gains: Respecting the Sacrifices We Have Made
Premier Ford announced on May 14, that retail stores not attached to malls could open the following Tuesday, May 19. In those five days, what preparation did our retail store owners, managers, and their employees receive?
Was any thought given, by Dr. David Williams, Medical Officer of Health, to limit store patrons to perhaps 2 per household when possible? I realize that there will be situations where that won’t be possible. Single parents shopping with children, for example. However, yesterday I observed an entire family, including 3 children (ages 5–10) and a teenager shopping at a Canadian Tire. This seems ill-advised at the very least. Only one was donning a mask and no attempt to physical distance from other patrons was noted. Disclaimer: I am immunocompromised and only went in the store because my online, curbside order was messed up. I look at public health measures with a critical eye.
Was there a required online course, including videos, for retailers to review? Handwashing, sanitizing, cleaning high touch surfaces, rationale for masks, limiting patron entrances, how to implement physical distancing etc. are the issues that come to mind. These are not intuitive to those without a background in healthcare.
Before opening, did each employee receive instructions in hygiene, frequent hand washing, sterilizing/washing down surfaces, improved sanitation of bathrooms, how to implement physical distancing measures, and how to don and doff gloves and masks?
Should stores have closed for a few days to train staff?
Should retailers be required to hire or appoint a compliance person, to ensure these new measures are occurring?
Can Public Health Ontario hire compliance officers to assist Retail Stores to protect their employees and customers?
Should Public Health Ontario require all retail employees to wear masks to help protect each other and their customers?
These are the questions I had after a short visit into a retail store yesterday: My first since early March.
What Ontario Retailers Received To Prepare For Re-Opening:
Nothing was delivered from the government as best I can garner. Please feel free to correct me. I did question a manager at a local Canadian Tire. He did not appear to be fully aware of the guidelines detailed below. I do not know if individual Public Health Departments provided retailers additional instruction or guidelines, though they are available by telephone during working hours.
Announcements were made by the Premier on television, and websites were referenced.
This is what I was able to research:
From the Ontario.ca COVID19 website, “ Resources to prevent COVID-19 in the workplace” are noted: https://www.ontario.ca/page/resources-prevent-covid-19-workplace . There is a long list of links pertaining to various occupations and workplaces. Near the bottom of the site (alphabetical order) is Retail with 5 links: Retail Sector, Cashiers, Garden Centres, Retail general labour employees, and Sales and Customer Service Representatives. So there appears to be no comprehensive guide for an individual retailer to cover all the must dos before opening. In fact, there appears to be no “must dos” at all. To follow through with the links though (minus Garden Centres, keeping with indoor retail shopping):
- Retail Sector: https://www.wsps.ca/WSPS/media/Site/Resources/Downloads/covid-19-retail-health-and-safety-guidance.pdf?ext=.pdf . A Workplace Safety and Prevention Services bulletin titled: “Guidance on Health and Safety for Retail Sector during COVID19”. This 3 page bulletin outlines the duty to keep workplaces safe for employees and recommends, not mandates, “BEST PRACTICES”. Under a heading, “CONTROLS”, the list of protective measures is preceded by “Here are a number of options to protect workers from exposure to COVID19”. These are NOT requirements, and that was clear in my recent retail experience at a Canadian Tire store. An excerpt is included below:
Later on it is stated: “As a last resort, consider Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which is effective only if it’s appropriate for the situation and people wear it correctly. Ensure PPE training includes the fit, use, care, putting on and taking off, maintenance, cleaning and limitations of the PPE.” Who is providing such training?
The Canadian Tire store in Windsor provided its workers with masks. Nearly all the employees at the time, including a manager, chose not to wear them. I politely, without judgement, asked one girl why she wasn’t wearing her mask: “It fogs my glasses”, she replied. Remember, masks are intended to reduce viral shedding from asymptomatic carriers. They are not there to protect individuals from infection, they are a public health measure, and certainly should be worn indoors in retail shops, by employees and customers. There’s enough evidence now that many countries mandate this public health measure. Yet language in this document muddies the waters:
“Respiratory protection is not the first line of defence against COVID-19. Please continue to monitor Public Health Ontario for respiratory protection advice.” This is rather disappointing, especially when the Medical Officer of Health for Canada, Dr. Theresa Tam, recommends a cloth mask when physical distancing cannot be certain. This protects employees and customers. This would apply to nearly all retail experiences, in my opinion.
Evidence for Masks:
Note, as McMaster university researchers have outlined in their recent report, the benefit from cloth masks is in reducing droplet transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is droplet spread. Therefore the volume of virus shedding is diminished from asymptomatic carriers with a cloth mask. Surgical masks are very effective at reducing viral shedding, but these are in short supply. We should be making these in Canada, for all Canadians. Hope springs eternal.
3. Cashiers: Another bulletin from the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services: “Guidance on Health and Safety for Cashiers during COVID-19” https://www.wsps.ca/WSPS/media/Site/Resources/Downloads/covid-19-cashiers-health-and-safety-guidance.pdf?ext=.pdf
There is no mandate for protective actions. Only a “Best Practices” list. An excerpt:
It appears this was intended for Cashiers, yet many of the actions listed pertain to the Retail owner or Manager. Employees should not have to direct their own protection. Masks are not mentioned anywhere in the document. Goggles and face shield are mentioned though are not normally used without masks.
4. The final bulletin I’ll note, from the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services: “Guidance on Health and Safety for
Sales and Customer Service Representatives during COVID-19”. https://www.wsps.ca/WSPS/media/Site/Resources/Downloads/covid-19-sales-health-and-safety-guidance.pdf?ext=.pdf
It is repetitive, and in some areas, out of touch. Again its phraseology is vague, some items pertaining to staff and other times, to the employer. At one point it asks if you can meet with customers on “ZOOM”. I suppose they could elaborate by improving ordering options.
I could find no other relevant documents from the Ontario government about safety guidelines or requirements for retail shops.
The Retail Council of Canada shines as an example of what retailers need to know before opening and during COVID19 operations. https://www.retailcouncil.org/coronavirus-info-for-retailers/covid-19-health-and-safety-resources/
For example, their comprehensive website includes Standard Operating Procedures for example on Cleaning and Disinfecting:
Finally, I can revert back to the Government of Canada’s guide toward operating essential service stores: grocery stores and pharmacies:
Advice for Essential Retailers During COVID-19 Pandemic:
Why are we treating clothing or hardware retailers different than the recommendations made for grocery stores and pharmacies? The Province of Ontario had an opportunity to enact sensible safeguards for retail employees and shoppers. They rushed to open retail stores while we continue to experience a signifcant COVID19 case load. It is not too late to rectify.
The government should require sensible actions such as:
- Mandate masks for workers and customers. Cloth or paper. Gloves (referenced repeatedly) provide little personal protection especially if one touches their face.
- Ensure every customer sanitizes on entering a store.
- Appoint an employee in each store to: ensure physical distancing is occurring, control the number of persons entering the store, and minimize the numbers entering per group (2?).
- Provide regulations for how often to sanitize work stations, conveyor belts, washrooms etc.
- Assign public health officials to assist retailers in their stores.
- Provide a comprehensive website with videos illustrating handwashing, sanitizing, use of PPE etc. Have a registry and an online quiz. Require employers and workers to complete the activities. Given them a printable diploma once complete.
COVID19 may be with us for years. There is no guarantee a vaccine will work, though I remain optimistic. Unless we put these protections in place now, retail shopping will be the next super spreader event in Ontario.
