Ford says projections a ‘wake-up call’
Ottawa ponders further tightening of restriction on people and businesses
TORONTO — Ontario will release data Friday showing how many Ontarians could die from COVID-19 in various scenarios, Premier Doug Ford announced Thursday, warning that the projections will be hard to hear.
Ford had resisted calls to release that modelling as recently as Wednesday, saying there were many different scenarios, but said medical experts will now provide a public briefing.
“Over the next little while we will all have to make some very, very difficult decisions and you deserve the same information I have,” Ford said.
“You deserve to see the same data that I see when I’m making decisions. You deserve to know what I know when you’re making decisions for yourself, your family and your community.”
Ford said the numbers may be “a real wake-up call” to people who may be tempted to pack the beaches and the parks as the weather gets nicer.
“The truth is the situation is extremely, extremely serious,” Ford said. “Right now our best defence is to stay home, self isolate and don’t go out. It is a matter of life and death.”
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health needed time to compile figures that take into account the large influx of people, including snowbirds, returning to Canada and develop an accurate model, Ford said.
Provincewide, there are now 2,793 cases of COVID-19, including 53 deaths and 831 resolved.
Ontario reported that 405 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, including 167 in intensive care, and 112 of those patients are on ventilators.
In Ottawa, an already grim employment toll looked set to worsen as authorities pondered further tightening restrictions on people and businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep the pandemic from suffocating the health-care system.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said too many Canadians were still going out needlessly, potentially spreading the coronavirus and putting healthcare workers at unnecessary risk. At the same time, Trudeau said he was leaning on restrictions provinces have put in place rather than issuing a mandatory national stay-home order.
“We’re not quite yet at that point,” Trudeau said.
The virus has now officially infected more than 11,200 Canadians and cost 138 their lives.
A hard-hit nursing home in Bobcaygeon — possibly the site of the worst outbreak in the province — reported two new fatalities. Sixteen residents have died and at least 24 staff members at Pinecrest Nursing Home have been infected.
Quebec saw its caseload rise about 20 per cent since Wednesday, with three more deaths. COVID-19 has killed at least 36 people in the province and another 25 in British Columbia. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said almost half the deaths have occurred among especially vulnerable residents of long-term care homes.
Manitoba said more than 40 health-care workers at a Winnipeg hospital had been sent home after two staff members tested positive.
In Toronto, Mayor John Tory was blunt as he announced a new bylaw imposing a two-metre spacing rule for people in parks and squares for the next 30 days, with fines of up to $5,000. People from the same household are exempt.
“Lives are potentially at stake, and we will turn up the heat in the hopes that the few who still don’t get it, or pretend not to get it, will get with the program,” Tory said.
The restrictions, which could last weeks or even months, have taken a hideous toll on employment — more than one million Canadians reported as having applied for jobless benefits.
On Monday, the Canada Revenue Agency will begin delivering the federal aid, with as many as 300,000 Canadians expected to inquire a day about the $2,000-a-month benefit. The agency usually has up to 4,000 employees at call centres for tax season, but more than 1,000 others have volunteered to help, many working from home.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, said the modelling will give people an idea of what to prepare for, of worst-case scenarios and how to shift the forecasts.
“I think the numbers, as always, will be challenging as people see what might progress,” he said. “If people see what might be possible, could be possible and what we might achieve through our ongoing energy and efforts of public health measures, physical distancing, it means we need to stay at the task and do our part to flatten the curve and impact that and change the projection as best we can.”