COVID-19: Ontario reports 308 new cases, 38 deaths, expects to extend State of Emergency to June 2
TORONTO, ON., May 11, 2020 — Although there was no official announcement made, tomorrow at Queen’s Park the provincial government is expected to extend the State of Emergency to June 2, when a portion of the provincial legislature sits in Toronto.
Only 42 out of Ontario’s 124 members will be allowed in the chamber at any given time to ensure physical distancing but a unanimous consent is also expected to quickly vote on all stages of a bill that makes COVID-19-related changes to several acts. All MPPs will be have temperature checks before being able to enter the legislature. Queen’s Park will also hold physically distanced in-house sessions on May 19, 20, 26, 27, June 2 and 3.
This comes after the province recorded record low case numbers on the weekend and 308 cases today and conducted 13,970 tests. On Sunday, the province of Ontario reported only 294 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19, which is even lower than the 346 reported two days ago after conducting over 19 thousand tests. Yesterday’s number is the lowest since March 31 when 260 cases were reported.
Sadly, the Ontario health units also reported 38 more deaths, 3 more deaths than yesterday’s report. But that is still 21 fewer than Saturday’s death toll, and the numbers are coming down somewhat. 1,174 of the 1,669 deaths have occurred in people over the age of 80 with an additional 417 deaths in the 60-79 age category. While 78 people aged 20-59 have also lost their lives due to the COVID-19 virus.
Ontario’s total case count including recoveries is over 20,000 with a total of 20,546 reported cases of the virus while the total number of Ontarians who have lost their lives to COVID-19 is now 1,669. There have been 15,131 recoveries and the province has now completed 447,964 tests.
The number of COVID-19 cases for the past seven days are 387, 412, 399, 477, 346, 294 and 308 respectively, whereas last week the province was reporting between 500 and 640 cases.
Today Premier Doug Ford said “Within 8 weeks we have come along way we are looking for a trend and these numbers are a good sign we are going in the right direction.
“We have already begun starting to reopen the province safely with strict public health measures today. Today thousands of people are going back to work,” said Ford.
But the Premier also asserted that the province still has a ways to go before it returns back to normal. “My friends we have come a long way but we still have a long way to go,” said Ford.
“We are at the start of a long journey of recovery and rebuilding,” said Ford, who offered great positivity and reassurance, saying that “your government will stand with you. I will be there every step of the way with you. Your government will stop at nothing to protect you, to support you, and to have your back.”
“We are at the start of a long journey of recovery and rebuilding.”
Premier Doug Ford
“Together we will come back stronger and more united than ever,” said Ford. “We are determined more than ever and we will rebuild what we have lost.”
Long-term care homes have been hardest hit
Meanwhile, the long-term care situation continues to be grim. The total number of active cases in the long-term care homes is 2,895 along with 1,530 staff members. A total of 245 outbreaks, two more than yesterday have been reported in long-term care homes along with more than 1,235 deaths.
Hospitals have also reported 304 staff cases of COVID-19 which is eleven more since yesterday. Sadly, three more deaths were reported among hospital staff yesterday so the death toll for hospital staff has increased to 50. There now have been 73 outbreaks in Ontario hospitals, which an increase of three since yesterday’s report.
According to hospital stats provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health from May 10 as of 4 pm, the number of actively hospitalized patients in Ontario due to the coronavirus is 1,027, which are 66 more than yesterday, while the total number of patients currently in Intensive Care is 194. Also of note, 3,407 of the total 20,546 cases are healthcare workers.
Ontario daily COVID-19 case counts past 19 days
If you take a look at the numbers over the past 14 days you will see that the average continues to drop as over the past seven days have seen an average of 336 new cases a day while the previous 7 days, the daily average was 438. So the case counts are noticeably dropping at this point with increased testing, meaning that is a doubly good sign that the spread of the virus is slowing.
Ontario COVID -19 case counts since April 20, 2020
April 20 – 606, April 21 – 551, April 22 – 510, April 23 – 634, April 24 – 640, April 25 – 476, April 26 – 437, April 27 – 424, April 28 – 525, April 29 – 347, April 30 – 459, May 1 – 421, May 2 – 511, May 3 – 434, May 4 – 370, May 5 – 387, May 6 – 412, May 7 – 399, May 8 – 477, May 9 – 346, May 10 – 294, May 11 – 308
Greater Toronto Area and Toronto COVID-19 case numbers
Greater Toronto Area public health units now account for 61.8% of cases while 12.5% of those people are hospitalized. Toronto has reported 7,413 cases, while there are 2,919 in Peel, 516 in Halton, 1,155 in Durham, and 1,852 in York.
In Toronto there have been 578 COVID-19 related deaths reported, which has increased by 11 since yesterday along with 5,192 recoveries. There have also been 124 COVID-19 outbreaks within institutions, four up from yesterday.
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