City opens recovery and rebuild office

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Looking ahead to life after COVID-19, the city announced the formation of a directorate charged with getting Toronto back up and running.

Speaking Friday at the city’s daily coronavirus press briefing, Mayor John Tory announced the appointment of Saad Raffi as head of Toronto’s office of recovery and rebuild. Dr. David Mowat will guide the city’s health recovery strategy.

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“People are becoming increasingly focussed on when life will be able to go back to normal, or as close to normal as we’re going to get,” Tory said.

“In these two individuals, I can tell you we have found the best one-two punch you could possibly find,“ the mayor added.

The office’s focus, he said, will be on mapping out a safe and sensible plan to restart the city.

Raffi previously worked as Ontario’s deputy health minister, the CEO of the 2015 Pan-Am/Parapan Games, and CEO of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.

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Mowat previously served as chief medical officer for the Region of Peel and the Province of Ontario.

Toronto’s chief medical officer, Dr. Eileen de Villa, will remain to oversee Toronto Public Health’s response to the pandemic.

As of Friday morning, there were 4,480 COVID-19 cases in the city.

Three hundred patients are hospitalized, and 113 are in intensive care.

Sixteen more people died overnight, bringing the total number of deaths to 238.

As of Friday, 160 residents of Toronto Long-Term Care Homes have now died from COVID-19, with 1,436 residents and 165 staff members testing positive for the potentially deadly respiratory illness.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume