2020 Health Plan

Message from the Commissioner & Medical Officer of Health

The annual Health Plan communicates Durham Region Health Department’s (DRHD) priorities for the year and is usually shared following Council approval of DRHD’s Business Plans and Budget. Although DRHD staff planned activities and initiatives across all programs and services for 2020, we had to change course in an unprecedented year to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was first informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. On January 7, 2020, it was confirmed that the cause was a novel coronavirus (COVID-19). On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. In early January 2020, when there were no COVID-19 cases in Canada, the public health sector began close monitoring of the situation and started preparations to respond if symptoms consistent with COVID-19 appeared in people in Canada. DRHD was engaged with the Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH) and Public Health Ontario (PHO) at the earliest monitoring and surveillance stages. Canada confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on January 25, 2020; this case was related to travel in Wuhan China. DRHD was informed of the first local positive COVID-19 case on February 28, 2020. On March 11, 2020, with 118,319 cases globally, the WHO announced that COVID-19 was a pandemic.

To ensure the health and well-being of our residents, DRHD immediately pivoted, mobilized resources, implemented measures identified in the Health Department Emergency Master Plan, and prioritized COVID-19 response activities. Many of our regular programs and services had to be put on hold, staff members were redeployed, and we activated our Continuity of Operations Plan to ensure delivery of critical public health services. Please refer to the 2020 Health Check-Up! for an overview of our COVID-19 response activities. A quarterly summary of DRHD’s COVID-19 response activities is also included in the following information reports as part of the Council Information Package: 2020-INFO-39 on May 1, 2020; 2020-INFO-72 on July 31, 2020; 2020-INFO-102 on October 30, 2020; and 2021-INFO-9 on January 29, 2021.

Robert Kyle, BSc, MD, MHSc, CCFP, FRCPC, FACPM