"Today, Mayors and Chairs from the 11 largest municipal governments across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area held their regular weekly meeting to discuss the ongoing response to COVID-19 across the region.

The Mayors and Chairs commended the province for its decision to move to Step One of the Roadmap to Reopen this Friday in light of positive indicators such as the decline in new COVID-19 cases and a strong uptake in vaccinations. 

They believe that the slightly advanced though still cautious timetable reflects continued concern for public health but also allows some first important steps in the direction of a more normal life for people and businesses. The advance notice given is a very positive step since it will allow businesses to plan. 

Municipalities and their healthcare and community partners are continuing to administer COVID-19 vaccines – first doses and second doses – as quickly as vaccine shipments can be provided from the federal and provincial governments. We support the province's move to allow accelerated doses for our older residents so that we can ensure they are fully vaccinated as soon as possible. 

The Mayors and Chairs urge the Ontario government to give consideration to the allocation of extra vaccine supply to hotspot areas in the province, including the GTHA, so as to better equip the province as a whole to contain the Delta variant in areas of greatest risk. Any failure to contain the Delta variant poses one of the biggest risks to improved public health and safe reopening. 

The more vaccine that is provided to GTHA municipalities, the more second doses can be administered, second doses being important in the fight against the Delta variant. 

The Mayors and Chairs want to thank the thousands of people working on the ongoing vaccination effort and all those who are doing the right thing and getting vaccinated."

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