Daily cases must be below 1,000 to lift lockdown
New hospital in Vaughan will be used to relieve a capacity crunch because of rising COVID-19 rates
TORONTO — Ontario’s top doctor says the province must cut its daily COVID-19 case counts to below 1,000 before lockdown measures can be lifted.
Dr. David Williams called the goal “achievable” and said the last time the province saw similar daily case counts was late October.
Williams says he would also like to see the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital intensive care units drop to 150.
The province reported Monday that 395 people were in hospital intensive care units across Ontario.
Williams says the province’s daily case rates appear to have plateaued and may have begun to drop.
He attributes the change to a provincewide lockdown which came into effect on Boxing Day.
Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford said a new hospital set to open in Vaughan, Ont., will be used to relieve a capacity crunch because of rising COVID-19 rates.
Ford said some patients from overcrowded Greater Toronto Area hospitals will be transferred to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital when it opens on Feb. 7.
The hospital will add 35 new critical care beds and 150 medical beds to the province’s bed capacity.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said some Toronto hospitals are already transferring patients to Kingston, Ont., and Niagara Region to help ease crowding.
The province said that once the COVID-19 capacity pressures have stabilized, the new Vaughan hospital will provide care to patients in York Region as originally planned.
The province also said it will spend $125 million to create 500 additional beds to deal with the latest virus surge which it
has warned could overwhelm hospitals.
Ontario reported 2,578 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 24 more deaths linked to the virus. There were 815 new cases in Toronto and 507 in Peel Region, as well as 151 more cases in York and Niagara regions.