6 new outbreaks in Ontario care homes
Province proposes allowing health officials to collect data by race
More COVID-19 outbreaks hit nursing homes over the weekend even as the virus loosens its grip elsewhere, with Ontario taking another step toward collecting data by race.
The province is proposing a regulatory change that would allow health officials to ask anyone testing positive for the novel coronavirus to voluntarily answer questions on their race, income, languages spoken and household size.
“This will help us get a more complete picture of the outbreak and eventually allow us to prevent and control cases even better,” associate officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe told a news conference Monday.
The move has long been urged by activists concerned that visible minorities and low-income Ontarians are being hit harder by the virus.
Authorities have already revealed that postal code data shows people in minority and low-income areas of Ontario are three times more likely to test positive than predominantly white and wealthy neighbourhoods.
“We recognize that some Ontarians may be at greater risk of COVID-19 infection,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a statement. “This includes racialized Ontarians and individuals with lower incomes.”
The push to collect race-based statistics comes with the worst of COVID-19’s first wave in the rear-view mirror and just one per cent of people being swabbed testing positive for the virus that has hit more than 34,000 Ontarians and killed about 2,600.
However, there were six more outbreaks in nursing homes since Friday, reversing a recent trend that saw infections fading.
Figures released Monday by the Ministry of Health showed 69 outbreaks in Ontario’s 626 long-term-care homes, where the death toll rose by five to 1,792 residents from the previous day.
When nursing home visits resume Thursday, families will not be allowed to visit loved ones in facilities with outbreaks, according to rules laid out by Premier Doug Ford last week.
Meanwhile, the number of active cases of COVID-19 across the province — including Toronto city councillor Michael Ford — fell to 2,630 as the number of recovered people who contracted the highly contagious virus outpaced new infections.
Almost 1,000 of those active cases are split between nursinghome residents and staff, down 600 from a week ago when there were 78 outbreaks in long-term care.
Patients in hospital for COVID-19 are also down significantly from last Monday, to 419 from 603. There are now 102 in intensive care and 69 of them on ventilators to breathe, down from 118 and 81 a week ago.
The province had 211 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 as of 5 p.m. Monday, one of the lowest daily rates in months according to a Star compilation of data from health units over the previous 24 hours, raising the total to 34,231 since the virus came to Ontario in late January.
There were 11 more fatalities, increasing the death toll to 2,582.
Labs across the province processed 21,751 tests Sunday. Just over 1 million of Ontario’s 14.5 million residents have been tested to date.