Ontario sets a COVID-19 daily case count record for second straight day, more restrictions coming

For the second straight day Ontario’s number of new COVID-19 cases has set a new record. Ontario public health units have reported 4,812 new infections today, eclipsing Thursday’s record of 4,736.

Ontario’s science advisory table is warning that the number of daily case counts could continue an upwards trajectory reaching between a staggering 12,000 and 18,000 by late May and they also say the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU could exceed 1,600 by that point. Their most recent modelling data from April 1 initially suggested by May the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU could reach 800 by May.

Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, the co-chair of Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table, said “Eight hundred is a place where we are not able to provide all the care as well as we want to people.”

As of today there are now 701 COVID-19 patients in intensive care, which sets a new record high. With 64,304 tests were processed over the past 24 hours, Ontario’s positivity rate has also risen to 8.2 per cent today, up from 6.3 per cent one week ago.

Sadly, 25 more virus-related deaths were also confirmed in the province today increasing the average daily death toll to 22, up from 15 a week ago.

Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe, told reporters on Thursday that the situation is dire.

“I have been providing updates to Ontarians for over a year now and at some of the previous press conferences I referred to the situation as worrisome and even scary. What is truly scary is that when I used those words before, our rates and our trends were nowhere near where we find ourselves today,” said Dr. Yaffe.

Meanwhile, the Ontario science advisory board also says more younger Ontarians are ending up in hospital, and that the risk of ICU admission is 2 x higher and risk of death is 1.5 x higher for the U.K. B.1.1.7 variant.

As a result of these steeply rising case counts and ICU numbers, it is expected that Premier Ford will be announcing even stricter measures on Friday. The cabinet met Thursday night with an announcement coming Friday afternoon. Sources are saying some of the possible measures being suggested include: shutting down all construction projects non-critical to infrastructure, limiting non-essential manufacturing and warehousing and more restrictions for religious services.

Ontario is also considering introducing fines for non-essential businesses that refuse to let employees work from home when they can.

Toronto Mayor John Tory says he doesn’t expect a curfew to be on the table and suggested that it wouldn’t address the level of activity that takes place during daytime hours.

“If you just look at your own traffic cameras that we look at each day… how could those people possibly all be essential workers going to work,” said Tory.

“I think there are still employers who are not discouraging employees from coming to work” said Mayor John Tory in an interview on CP24. “I’m not talking here about essential workers. I am talking about people who really, when you boil it down, don’t have to be at work in order for the functioning of their job to continue. They could work from home.”

Tory also said he thinks many people are still going out to do non-essential trips. “I think we are still talking about too much activity on the part of people who are going out and not getting the essentials. They are getting things that are clearly not essential,” he said.

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