COVID-19 in Ontario described as ‘dire’

TORONTO • Ontario’s COVID-19 situation is “dire,” one of the province’s top doctors said Thursday as the government considered new restrictions to deal with an alarming rise in cases.

Hours after the province set a new record for daily infections — 4,736 cases — Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate medical officer of health, said she had never seen things so bad.

“Unfortunately, our situation is dire,” she said.

“At some of the previous press conferences I have 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.”

Ontario’s seven-day average for daily cases had jumped by 36 per cent in one week to 4,208, Yaffe said.

The 1,932 people currently hospitalized with COVID and 659 in intensive care are both record highs, she noted, highlighting the pressure on the health-care system.

New public health restrictions — on top of Ontario’s current stay-at-home order and closure of in-person schooling — will be required and have been recommended to cabinet, Yaffe said.

The measures, on which Yaffe did not elaborate, are based on data gathered by the province’s science advisers and take into account efforts that have worked in other jurisdictions, she said.

“Things are not going to get better if we don’t change,” Yaffe said. “Things will, in fact, get worse. So, that’s the bottom line.”

Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet met Thursday afternoon to discuss the potential new restrictions.

Solicitor General Sylvia Jones would not say, however, what measures were being considered or if a curfew — similar to the one enforced in Montreal — would be among them.

“Premier Ford has said from the very beginning of this pandemic, that all options are on the table,” Jones said. “And that continues to be our philosophy as a cabinet and a caucus.”

Jones, however, acknowledged the challenges a curfew would present in Ontario, pointing to anti-curfew protests in Quebec. “I think the Montreal riots speak to the challenge of both enforcing, and people’s willingness to do a curfew,” she said.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said a curfew would not help the public health crisis, and urged the government not to go down that road.

Hospitals have been ramping down non-essential and non-urgent medical procedures this week to ensure they have the capacity to care for COVID-19 patients as infections keep rising.

The government also said a COVID-19 field hospital could be activated in Toronto later this month to help deal with an influx of patients.

The Ministry of Health said the mobile health unit at Sunnybrook Hospital, set up in the facility’s parking lot, is expecting to take patients in the coming weeks.