Yukon government announces $4M support package for COVID-19

The Yukon government announced a series of measures on Monday to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts.

Health officials said Monday there are still no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 in the territory, and urged people to self-isolate as much as possible to slow any spread of the coronavirus.

Premier Sandy Silver announced a $4-million "support package" to deal with some of the economic fallout. It will be used for, among other things, compensation for workers who need to stay home but don't get paid sick days.

"This will make money available to support workers for up to 10 working days enough to cover a 14-day isolation period if needed," Silver said at a news conference Monday.

The fund will also be used for waiving and refunding some government fees, deferring workers' compensation premiums and reimbursing pre-paid premiums, and offering grants to businesses that have lost revenue from cancelled events.

"We know that local businesses need to persevere through this situation. We need workers to have jobs to return to when COVID-19 runs its course," Silver said.

"We need tourism operators to welcome visitors when it's safe to travel again, we need Yukoners to feel able to self-isolate if needed and we need people to practice social distancing.

"I am confident that we can keep Yukoners working. Yukon is a very strong community ... I know that Yukon will come through this difficult time even stronger than we were before."

'Critical moment is now'

Silver acknowledged that COVID-19 will make its way to Yukon at some point, and health officials suggested the same. 

At an earlier news conference on Monday, they called for "concerted massive action" to minimize the impact.

"The critical moment is now," said Dr. Catherine Elliott, Yukon's deputy chief medical officer of health, at an earlier news conference on Monday, where officials announced a series of measures to slow any spread of the coronavirus.

"The goal is to decrease how quickly COVID-19 spreads from person to person ... and we also are working to delay the introduction into Yukon."

Among the measures urged by Elliott and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brendan Hanley:

• a ban on any gathering of 50 people or more
• no visitors, including volunteers, to long-term care facilities except when family members are at end-of-life
• no visits to health care facilities if you've been outside Canada in last 14 days 
• work from home if possible
• keep children home from daycare or camp if possible
• seniors and people with underlying medical conditions avoid social gatherings
• physicians rely more on virtual care and telehealth where possible

Officials are not calling for bars and restaurants to close, but urged those businesses to keep capacity low enough inside to allow people to be well spaced. 

Hanley called the recommendations a "measured response," and said more protective measures may be introduced as the situation changes.

"These are the measures that we need for today, let's see what we need for tomorrow," he said.

Hanley said Yukoners should take things very serious, and that "it's now or never" for people to work together as a community to keep each other safe. That means social distancing and self-isolating as much as possible.

"The weapon that we have is the public response," he said.

"We have a gift right now and that gift is we're a little bit ahead of the game, and we're trying to stay that way."