More than half of Canadians support total ban on holiday gatherings: Legger survey

With officials at all levels of government pushing for Canadians to keep the holiday celebrations at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, it looks as if the majority of Canadians are listening to the messaging.

According to a survey conducted by Canadian market research and analytic company Legger that was released Tuesday, 71 per cent of Canadians have changed their holiday plans because of COVID-19.

With 45 per cent of Canadians afraid of being exposed to COVID-19 at holiday gatherings with family and friends, 60 per cent of Canadians say they go as far as supporting a total ban on holiday gatherings.

(Leger conducted a web survey between November 27 and 29 that included 1,516 Canadians 18 years of age and older.)

As health minister Christine Elliott announced Wednesday in a news conference, Ontario doesn’t expect the province to have a vaccine before 2021.

And the vaccine will be rolled out in a tiered system.

“Our most vulnerable residents are people that we want to protect and of course, we want to make sure that our frontline healthcare providers can continue doing their excellent work,” said Elliott.

“We are discussing the priorities now but we will have that ready in very short order because we don’t have a lot of time for this. We want to make sure that we’re ready to go as soon as those vaccines land in Ontario.”

The minister of health also confirmed that the government has spoken to Pzifer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen, and Moderna about their respective vaccines.

“This is absolutely critical for planning,” said Elliott. “We’re working with distribution experts like McKesson and Shoppers Drug Mart who not only have the warehousing capacity for vaccines like this, but know how to get these vaccines to their network like hospitals and other front line providers.”

– With files from Canadian Press