Twelve more weeks.

Twelve more weeks of social distancing. Twelve more weeks of mandatory quarantines for people with COVID-19 and anyone they’ve been in contact with. Twelve more weeks of non-essential businesses being shut down. Twelve more weeks of leaving your home only when necessary.

That’s what Toronto’s medical officer of health Eileen de Villa said Wednesday would be necessary to flatten the curve and get the COVID-19 pandemic at least partly under control in this city.

With businesses on the verge of failing, many people worrying whether they’ll be able to pay for their rent, and Toronto’s social fabric already fraying, what will those twelve weeks look like? We asked some Toronto residents what the twelve weeks will mean for them. Here are their answers.

Jen Agg, restaurateur and owner of Rhum Corner, Cocktail Bar, Le Swan, Grey Gardens and Bar Vendetta

“Twelve weeks is likely the minimum; I’ve already been mentally preparing to continue social distancing until at least October. Being home is fine, cooking is nice. The only real problem is the restaurant’s rent. If that were eased or lifted, I wouldn’t be that stressed (outside the obvious stress of this disaster).

“The landlords cannot just be asked to be lenient with us, because by and large they won’t be. We need the government to step up and mandate something reasonable, and to me that means no rent for April, as well as a 50 per cent reduction for the duration. I’m taking a 100 per cent loss here, so why should landlords take a zero per cent loss? Deferring rent isn’t very helpful, because at the end of this it will all add up and we’ll be reopening with a mountain of debt. Outside of that, I don’t think reopening will be that hard — we have a very loyal staff, all anxious to get back to work. My main thing is to provide jobs for them, and with everyone scrambling to get out once we’re allowed, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just the rent that’s hanging over me.”

Kyle Bodanis, indie filmmaker

Bodanis says another 12 weeks of restrictions will mean a world of uncertainty for him in a time when he was about to launch several new projects. He’s a self-employed filmmaker who supplements his income by working in the unionized film and television world.

“It’s two different issues coming together. On one hand, client work and project pitching is on hold, so it’s difficult to move the entrepreneurial narrative forward when ongoing projects are stalled indefinitely. On the other hand, we don’t know when the union industry is going to start up again in earnest. Anyone in the business will tell you there’s a certain amount of uncertainty. But this is definitely a unique situation. You get into a holding pattern.”

Bodanis and his fiancee postponed their March 28 wedding until November.

“It’s tough. We’re fine right now, but it’s been a couple weeks. To do this for a few months? We’re not sure what that looks like. We can pay the bills, but will there be debt? Will we lose the ground that we’ve made? How and when will the assistance from the government happen? It’s really difficult. I’m trying to use it to fine-tune my business, do things that get lost in the shuffle, set up so we can hit the ground running when the world gets back to normal.”

Kevin Ashe, deputy mayor, City of Pickering

Filling in for Mayor Dave Ryan, who is away due to a health issue, Ashe took the reins just as the crisis was about to hit.

“It’s been less than three weeks since municipalities began to address COVID-19. And in that span, it’s been an absolute whirlwind of meetings, phone calls and update briefings as the situation has unfolded. The next three months will definitely be a challenge for Pickering. The Municipal Act forbids municipalities from running a deficit. As such, we are constrained in what we can do to provide financial assistance or relief to residents and businesses. We are going to have to make some tough decisions.

“Moving forward, it’s apparent that COVID-19 will become a seminal event that will fundamentally change our society. And we need to be better prepared for the next crisis at all levels of government and in all facets of policy, infrastructure and service delivery. For example, we’ve seen in real time the transition to online education and the virtual workplace. However, Pickering’s hamlets and rural areas do not have access to affordable and/or reliable broadband. If we’re serious about bridging this digital divide and building more resilient communities, we need the senior levels of government to make more significant investments in broadband infrastructure across the province and nation.”

Veronica Hendrick-Lockyer, single mom

Hendrick-Lockyer is a social anthropology masters student and PhD candidate at York University. She was planning to defend her masters thesis this month, then graduate in June and move into her PhD studies. She’s been hit with weekly changes. Being adaptable has been key to survival.

“I won’t get to do my thesis defence with face-to-face feedback. We will Zoom it, but that isn’t the same.”

The prospect of securing summer positions in her area of study is now being threatened by another 12 weeks of restrictions, both here and abroad.

“The school has encouraged us to register for the summer semester so that we are eligible for any necessary emergency funding caused by COVID. I had been applying for summer researcher positions at UNICEF headquarters in NYC and that is an obvious no-go zone now. I suppose my biggest fear is to get this far and have it all end abruptly with no ability to figure out any other kind of plan forward.”

Being a single mother of four while studying has also complicated things.

“I needed to earn money this summer. I don’t know what that will look like now. I’ll probably scrape by with the awards I have won, but the uncertainty isn’t a nice place to be and certainly not a place that lets me focus on my research paper.”

She’s still living on campus.

“The university is a ghost town. It’s like being in a Twilight Zone movie where you wonder if the world just forgot to wake up.”

She plans to occupy her time over the next few weeks by reading to kids of parents who need a helping hand.

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“The one thing I have taken time out to do was to go online and read children stories so that quarantined parents could have little breaks for/with their children.”

Dr. Chetan Mehta, addictions medicine physician, Toronto

“Like many people profiled in this series, COVID-19 is forcing me to make some adjustments in my professional and personal life. For starters, my workplace has changed quite a bit and we are all trying to adjust at the hospital I work at. All ‘non-urgent’ clinics have been cancelled — I say this loosely as many of the patients I follow in the addictions medicine clinic I work at show up in crisis on a regular basis, and the decreased in-person and over-the-phone appointments are leaving many of them panicked.

“Switching to over the phone appointments comes with a number of challenges for myself — in-office tests I may order are postponed, there is more faxing of prescriptions, and the subtle nuances of body language that allow for better assessment and management are sometimes lost during an in-person appointment (though I am slowly adapting!). In addition, many of my patients who don’t have their own phone are much more stressed and sometimes calling to talk from a friend’s or the pharmacy they use. It has forced both myself and my patients to be more resourceful in providing care.

“I would also add that with the cancellation of clinics at our hospital, it has forced myself and I’m sure a number of my colleagues to adjust to some new financial realities in the interim, if you are someone who has traditionally billed on a per visit. Thankfully, we get to practise in a system where the government has tried to remunerate us for our over-the-phone work and ensure some stability and equity for our work, but it is still a challenge for us, like many Canadians, during this tumultuous time.

“As a health-care provider, I am not surprised and fully support Public Health’s decision to put in place the restrictions they have enacted on workplaces and social gatherings, given the gravity of what is at stake for all of us, and I am pleased to say that many of my friends and colleagues in Public Health would not take these measures without putting significant thought into their decisions. But like many other Canadians, I am still thrown off kilter in terms of how to socialize, stay connected, manage finances and so on. I will say, one of the wonderful things that I have experienced from this is that many of the leisure activities at home that have been put off for years have been reignited with the gift of time this slowdown has allowed for a short period.”

Cathy Crowe, street nurse and advocate for the homeless

The longer COVID-19 lingers, the harder it will become for homeless people in Toronto to survive, Crowe said.

“The measure of social distancing that the average person can do is not the same as a homeless person can. It’s incredibly worrisome,” she said of the situation in city shelters, respite centres and drop-in places. Many of these places have always been operating at or near full capacity. The city has promised to decrease the number of homeless people in shelters by renting extra spaces in hotels and apartment buildings, but Crowe said it’s still not clear when or how that will be done.

She commends measures that have been announced, such as keeping shelter beds six feet apart, but says she’s only seen it applied at one place while others are “still crowded.” Last week, Crowe took two city councillors on a “pandemic tour,” visiting homeless shelters and sanctuaries to see the “desperate” situation firsthand.

“All sites are having staff off and sending them in quarantine since the first case of COVID-19 was reported,” she said, noting there needs to be a “massive operation” to reduce the homeless population in shelters. “It will get worse for homeless people if nothing is done to change the current situation.”

Lhamo Dolkar, registered nurse, St. Michael’s Hospital

Dolkar is in favour of 12 more weeks of social distancing. As a nurse on the front lines, she can see how infectious COVID-19 is.

“Honestly, I’m very much in favour of social distancing being extended, because I feel that that’s the only way to slow the spread of the disease. It’s already there in the community … The only way that we can slow it down is to keep up distancing measures for about 12 weeks.

“As a registered nurse and as a front-line worker, I am also paranoid about the whole situation because I understand the infectious nature of the virus. Nurses are paranoid at this moment for our own safety because of the PPE situation that we are having right now. If this continues, I don’t think it’s sustainable in terms of supplies.

“I have four young boys; three of them go to school. They are all cooped up, but we’re taking it positively. We have already started home schooling. We’re giving them math worksheets and then they’re learning the Tibetan language. My husband is teaching them every two hours.

“The virus and social distancing has changed our lives. But on the positive side, I would say that it has given us more family time. We have more family dinners and you know, we have to live with it because if we want to go back to our own comfort, then we have to go through this a little bit longer.”

Queenie Best, owner and operator of Queenie’s Cards

While Best says she understands the need for social distance, she worries about the effect on her 7-year-old daughter Madeline.

“As a small-business owner and the parent of a young child, the feeling of 12 more weeks was overwhelming at first because all aspects of our lives will continue to be affected — my storefront will still be temporarily closed and it feels like my daughter’s education is sidetracked. However, I realize these are the necessary sacrifices we all need to make to overcome this pandemic.

“Queenie’s Cards had just relocated to a new space in September, and we really thought this year we would settle into our new environment and host more in-store events. Just when we had planned out our entire 2020 calendar, we had to close our doors. The biggest fear falls in the possibility of losing sales and not being able to sustain our business online. Business-wise, I have a lot of hard decisions to make. We can cover one or two months of rent, but if the retail shutdown goes on any longer then we would need commercial rent relief to make it through.

“My daughter Madeline is an only child so it’s been difficult to have her isolated from her friends. Being a 7-year-old, she is able to entertain herself with her toys. We take daily walks in our neighbourhood, but she misses face-to-face interactions. My biggest worry is her brain turning into mush with school being out until at least May 4, so my husband and I have taken on home schooling as a priority to ensure her learning routine is still in place. Whenever we get restless in the house we go to the backyard and invent games while on the swings, and hope the weather is on our side.”

With files from Jason Miller, Jenna Moon, Gilbert Ngabo, Karon Liu and Josh Rubin