To the residents of Ontario,

Your Local Ontario Doctors are going into battle with the pandemic CoVID-19. We are family doctors, emergency doctors, infectious disease specialists, respirologists, critical care doctors and all doctors taking care of patients in and outside of hospitals - writing to you independent from our organizations. We are highly skilled in assessing and treating any and all patients but we cannot win without your help. We are sounding the alarm to you, our patients. We want to provide excellent care to all of you who will contract CoVID-19; and we want to continue to provide excellent care to those of you presenting with other emergencies and care needs during the pandemic. We must all act today, as this is a timely matter.

Isolation on a massive scale (this includes everybody, if possible) is the ONLY WAY to delay and curtail the onslaught of CoVID-19 patients into our hospitals. It is simply not enough to wash your hands and go about your daily life as normal. Everyone must stay home in isolation, even if you're healthy. The government has been slow to make these suggestions and stop all non-essential services. Please, for the sake of protecting everyone, we ask you to consider taking the following actions for the rest of March and for as long as we are at war - starting today:

Discuss with your teams at work and switch to working remotely when possible; cease working if possible.

when possible; cease working if possible. Cancel and refrain from attending public gathering events , including regular gatherings and special occasions; in particular, please refrain from attending gatherings for St. Patrick’s Day.

, including regular gatherings and special occasions; in particular, please refrain from attending gatherings for St. Patrick’s Day. Cancel all vacations to all destinations, international and domestic (within Canada).

international and domestic (within Canada). Refrain from visiting all public destinations unless absolutely necessary. Do not go to restaurants, libraries, gym or stores. Only go to grocery stores, pharmacies & healthcare facilities, if necessary.

In other words, to flatten the curve and slow the spread - let's protect our healthcare workers & citizens and #StayAtHome #SocialDistancing

Please know that we, the doctors, and entire healthcare teams working with us, will do everything in our power to keep the people of Ontario safe. Please help us succeed by doing everything within your power.

Help us push this movement forward so our politicians understand, we cannot waste days. We must act now to save lives.

Sincerely,

Your Local Ontario Doctors