Three new cases a ‘small piece of the picture’

There are three new cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa, bringing the total of confirmed cases in the city to 19.

One is a man in his 80s who travelled to Portugal, and the other two are men in their 40s who contracted the virus through close contact. All three are self-isolating.

Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, stressed Friday that the confirmed cases were “a small piece of the picture of the infections in our community.”

She urged people in isolation to take the directive seriously and to stay in their homes.

“Please do not go out shopping for groceries or medicine or other supplies. Consider having family, friends or neighbours leave the supplies at your door,” Etches said.

“In a perfect world, we would be able to track down every last person who has respiratory symptoms in the city of Ottawa, and we would be able to test them. We don’t have the capacity to do that many swabs right now.”

Across Ontario, the total number of confirmed COVID -19 cases was up to 318 on Friday, an increase from 258 one day earlier. There have been two deaths and five resolved cases.

One Canadian also died in Japan from complications related to COVID -19. That individual was a passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that had been quarantined at Yokohama.

The Fairmont Château Laurier announced it would close Saturday, calling it “farewell for now.”

Meanwhile, the federal government is launching “Canada’s plan to mobilize industry to fight COVID -19,” an initiative that will help companies already making things like masks and hand sanitizer to scale up production in a significant way, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

The federal government, for example, is helping auto-parts manufacturers to start producing medical equipment, Trudeau said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the launch of the first phase of a “learnat-home” portal for Ontario students. It will provide interactive, bilingual learning tools in line with provincial K-12 curricula.

Certified tutors will be available through TVO, Ford said.

For households without computers, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the province would ensure the “necessary technology is provided to those who need it.” tspears@postmedia.com twitter.com/TomSpears1