TORONTO – The Ontario government faced calls Tuesday to establish a permanent 10-day paid leave program in light of a surge in cases of monkeypox.
Public Health Ontario reported 326 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the province on Monday, up from 288 on Thursday.
The figures came as opposition New Democrats said a permanent paid leave program would limit the spread of smallpox and other infectious diseases.
NDP lawmaker Kristyn Wong-Tam said the isolation recommendation for those who are sick with smallpox can be 21 days or potentially longer.
He said the government should introduce a permanent program to allow workers to take 10 paid sick days for infectious diseases and 14 additional sick days during public health emergencies.
“Infection rates (of smallpox) are increasing,” he told a news conference on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re sounding the alarm that we can’t risk standing still.”
Ontario currently has a pandemic program that provides workers with three days of paid leave for absences related to COVID-19, such as testing, vaccination, isolation or caring for family members sick with the virus. The government recently extended this program until the end of March 2023.
Public Health Ontario said most of the province’s confirmed smallpox cases are currently in Toronto. He said 11 people with the virus have been hospitalized, including two patients who have been treated in intensive care units. No deaths from monkeypox have been reported in Ontario.
Public health officials say most cases are among men who report having sex with men, but they say anyone can get monkeypox.
Wong-Tam said the spread of monkeypox is affecting the lives of her constituents in Toronto.
“The church and the village of Wellesley were at the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and saw immense damage to the main street businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said, referring to the gay village from Toronto.
“The last thing local small businesses need is another pandemic. By refusing, again, to provide adequate and permanent paid sick days to Ontarians in the face of the growing monkeypox public health emergency, (the first Minister Doug) Ford is not protecting people’s health.”
A spokesman for Ontario Labor Minister Monte McNaughton said in a statement that the government has been monitoring the situation but has not made a decision on a new sick leave policy for smallpox.
The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on Saturday. The director general of the organization said that the disease has spread to more than 70 countries.
Dr. Samantha Green, family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital Sumac Creek Health Center in Toronto, said creating an adequate and permanent paid sick day program is an important public health measure to help stop the spread of monkeypox.
“We know that monkeypox is an infectious disease that spreads through person-to-person contact, and ensuring that workers can stay home while they are sick is vital if we are to slow the spread and support the process of recovery of patients,” he said during the press conference with the NPD’s Wong-Tam.
“Legislating paid sick days through labor standards is the most effective way to contain the spread of all types of infectious diseases in a workplace.”
Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, said the city had administered about 11,000 monkeypox vaccinations as of Tuesday. He said interest in vaccination increased after the World Health Organization declared the disease a global health emergency.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, recently said monkeypox will likely be around for “many months” because of its long incubation period.
In general, the virus does not spread easily and is transmitted by prolonged close contact through respiratory droplets, direct contact with skin lesions or body fluids, or through contaminated clothing or bedding.
Common symptoms include rash, oral and genital lesions, and swollen lymph nodes.
Monkeypox disease comes from the same family of viruses that cause smallpox, which the World Health Organization declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. Smallpox vaccines have proven effective in fighting the smallpox virus.
– with files from Holly McKenzie-Sutter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 26, 2022.