Ontario reports 455 new virus cases

Windsor hospitals, agencies to ‘mass swab’ 8,000 migrant workers

Ontario reported a spike in new COVID-19 cases Saturday, though dozens were attributed to a reporting delay, as the province extended its emergency orders for another 10 days. There were 455 new COVID-19 cases added to the provincial total, including 68 that were part of a reporting delay between a laboratory and public health.

There were 23,105 tests completed over the past day — the third day in a row Ontario surpassed its goal of doing 20,000 tests a day. Ontario’s new testing strategy includes targeting specific workers and sometimes bringing mobile testing units to them.

In Windsor, meanwhile, local hospitals and health organizations will jointly conduct a “mass swabbing” for COVID-19 of 8,000 migrant workers in the area starting on Tuesday.

It comes after the Windsor region on Saturday reported the death of a second migrant worker from COVID-19. Windsor Regional Hospital said a 24year-old man was first admitted to a different hospital on Monday, and died at their facility on Friday. The hospital said they have contacted the man’s family in Mexico.

Another temporary foreign worker in the Windsor area who came to Canada in February and tested positive for the virus on May 21 died last weekend.

Approximately 20,000 migrant workers come to Ontario each year to work on farms and in greenhouses — many of them from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean — and this year have been required to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival.

Outbreaks that have affected dozens of migrant workers have been reported in Chatham-Kent, Windsor-Essex, Niagara Region and Elgin County.

Ontario extended its emergency orders Saturday until June 19, including banning people from dining in bars and restaurants, and gathering in groups larger than five.

The orders that had been set to expire June 9 include the closure of child-care centres, though Premier Doug Ford has said that a phased reopening plan for them will be announced early next week.

Extending the emergency orders also means the continued closure of bars and restaurants except for takeout and delivery, libraries except for curbside pickup or delivery, and theatres, and that Ontarians looking to use playgrounds, or beat the heat at public pools and splash pads, are out of luck for now.

The province recently extended its state of emergency until June 30.

The new cases reported Saturday push Ontario’s total number of cases to 30,202, which is a 1.5 per cent increase over the previous day’s total. It includes 2,407 deaths and 23,947 cases that have been resolved.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 dropped sharply, from 749 to 673 and the number of people in intensive care went down slightly, while the number of people on ventilators rose slightly.

Active outbreaks in long-term care homes decreased from 85 to 83, while the number of resident deaths increased by 25 to a total of 1,717. Those figures from the Ministry of Long-Term Care are from a separate database than the provincial totals.

Ontario’s new testing strategy includes targeting specific workers and mobile testing units