Man in 40s becomes Ontario’s youngest victim

Cases rise 25% in a day, with province still on ‘upswing,’ top doctor says

Aman in his 40s who worked at a Real Canadian Superstore in Oshawa has become the youngest victim of COVID-19 in Ontario as the province’s death toll increased to 15 Thursday, health officials say.

That was a jump of six fatalities in a 24-hour period that saw another 170 cases of the new coronavirus confirmed, a sharp rise of 25 per cent to 858 in total.

Across Canada, there were 3,579 cases and 35 deaths.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health said he would not be surprised to see the number of new cases in this province start rising by 200 or more daily.

That’s because thousands of Ontarians who have returned from March break and other travel abroad may be “incubating” the virus that is circulating in global vacation spots and airports, Dr. David Williams said.

“We are in this upswing,” he told a daily briefing at Queen’s Park, urging people to remain at home if they can and stay at least two metres away from others when they go out.

The unidentified worker from the Superstore on Gibb Street in

Oshawa is one of two COVID-19 deaths of people under the age of 70 so far recorded, said Williams. The other was a Halton Region man in his 50s who had underlying health conditions. The supermarket management revealed Monday that the worker, who had no recent travel history, had tested positive but had not been in the store for seven days.

The store moved to reassure concerned shoppers on its Facebook page, noting the premises were given a thorough cleaning and that it was assured by Durham Region public health officials “the risk to our customers is very low.”

Dry cough, fever and chills are among the most reported symptoms of COVID-19. At least 12 of Ontario’s new cases have been admitted to hospital, including a woman in her 20s from Toronto who had close contact with a person who had tested positive, and a Londonarea man also in his 20s.

There are an estimated 50 Ontarians in hospital with the virus, up from 20 a week ago. Twenty-nine of the patients now hospitalized are in intensive care, with 20 on ventilators.

Plenty of capacity remains in Ontario hospitals, officials said. Still, Health Minister Christine Elliott defended moves by some hospitals to delay some cancer and other surgeries to reserve space for an expected wave of COVID-19 patients.

In Ottawa, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said authorities are getting a better handle on the impacts of COVID-19 on the health system. About six per cent of cases are being hospitalized, 2.6 per cent becoming critically ill and one per cent are fatal.

“Many of the deaths in Canada have been linked to outbreaks in long-term-care facilities,” Tam noted, stressing the need to prevent infections in vulnerable populations.

By Thursday, some 158,000 people had been tested, up 58,000 from Monday, Tam said.