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The WHO guidelines outline six areas officials must consider if they are to look at resuming activities. Here is where Canada stands on each of them.

1. Is transmission of the virus under control?

Short answer: We’re not testing enough to know.

What the experts say: Eleanor Fish, a professor of immunology at the University of Toronto, said testing must become much more widespread before we really understand the state of community transmission.

Alison Thompson, a public health professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto, said it takes a significant amount of time between a confirmed infection and fully tracing a person’s contacts and testing them, to know whether that confirmed infection has resulted in many more infections.

In the long run if we end up with an out-of-control situation with COVID, the economy will take much, much longer to recover

“We have to make sure it actually is levelling off, or that community transmission has actually ground to a halt, which can take quite awhile,” she said.

If restrictions are removed too quickly, thousands of people with COVID-19, who may not know they are infected, could potentially spread it fast and wide, she said.

Thompson also said it’s time to stop thinking of the pandemic in terms of health versus the economy. If there isn’t a healthy workforce the economy will continue to suffer, she said.

“We may see some short-term gains if we did ease up on some of these restrictions,” she said. “But in the long run if we end up with an out-of-control situation with COVID, the economy will take much, much longer to recover.”