Tougher measures loom for trouble areas
Toronto, Peel, York all in red zone, just shy of top lockdown level
The threat of lockdowns is hanging over Toronto, Peel and York, with a frustrated Premier Doug Ford warning new COVID-19 measures can be expected Friday as new cases and deaths keep climbing.
“We continue seeing extremely, extremely troubling numbers,” Ford said Wednesday. “The virus is spreading at an alarming rate in these areas.”
The three health units accounted for three-quarters of Ontario’s new infections in the previous 24 hours.
“We have to do something,” Ford said, pledging “a more targeted approach in the hot spots” and pleading with people to follow pandemic precautions such as wearing masks, physical distancing and avoiding get-togethers.
“No more parties, no more nothing, or this is going to be at 6,000 cases a day,” he said, referring to computer modelling of the pandemic’s trajectory into mid-December if no new measures are taken.
“We have to hunker down.” It’s expected that students would remain in classrooms in any lockdowns, given repeated assurances from Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce their goal is to keep schools open, with 84 per cent reporting no COVID-19.
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie told a news conference later in the day that COVID-19 is “out of control,” but called for GTA-wide measures, while Peel medical officer Dr. Lawrence Loh asked residents to limit their contacts with others for two to four weeks.
“We need to take our restrictions seriously,” he said.
Toronto, Peel and York are now in the now in the red or “control” zone of Ontario’s fivestage framework for restrictions, one short of the top lockdown level. Toronto has been negotiating with the province on new measures it wants to impose on its own.
Chief medical officer Dr. David Williams will be presenting recommendations to Ford and his cabinet for decisions to be announced Friday as the province reveals which restriction level each of Ontario’s 34 regional public health units is in. The premier’s remarks — echoing a lockdown warning issued last Friday — came as Ontario’s death count from COVID-19 is returning to levels not seen since the first wave last spring after almost two months of record highs in new cases.
The 32 fatalities reported Wednesday as the province recorded 1,417 new infections marked the third day in five with deaths above 20. Until Nov. 2, most days saw deaths in the single digits.
In the last seven days, 140 Ontarians — most of them elderly and in nursing homes — have died from the virus, a 50 per cent increase from 93 in the previous seven days.
“To me it’s clear we need the premier to stop pleading with people and start leading,” said Green Leader Mike Schreiner, calling for stronger public health measures and more supports for businesses that must close or reduce operations.
Ford brushed aside criticisms his government takes too long to impose restrictions, but expressed concern about rising hospitalizations and acknowledged “we’re seeing mortality rates go up.”
Ontario’s all-time high for daily COVID-19 deaths was 86 on April 30, at the peak of the first wave. Ford said 26 of the 32 deaths reported Wednesday were in nursing homes, where another 69 residents and 21 staff became infected with COVID-19, continuing what has been a steady climb in infections that have fuelled 100 outbreaks in long-term care.
Nursing homes in the third or orange “restrict” level of the government’s framework will begin weekly testing of staff and support workers to “better protect vulnerable residents,” Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said.
Cases across the province were up almost 200 from Tuesday, but short of the record 1,581 reported on Saturday. The seven-day provincial average of new infections is 1,422, slightly below an all-time high set two days ago.
New infections in Peel Region outnumbered those in much larger Toronto by 463 to 410, with 178 in York, 63 in Halton, 46 in Hamilton and 40 in Durham.
Just five of the province’s 34 regional health units reported no new cases: Peterborough, Hastings-Prince Edward, Renfrew County, Algoma and Timiskaming.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 rose by six to 535 people with 127 requiring intensive care, unchanged from the previous day, and three more ICU patients on ventilators, raising that total to 78. That means just over 60 per cent of intensive care patients need mechanical help to breathe. Two months ago, that figure was 50 per cent.
Health Minister Christine Elliott asked Ontarians to consider what could happen if they get together with people outside their own households, given the viral transmission that has taken place at social events.
“I know, often, people will say, ‘Does it really matter if we have this gathering or this dinner party? It is not going to affect things.’ But it does. That can start a spread of COVID-19, which then expands exponentially.”