York, Windsor in lockdown

Regions join Toronto, Peel as areas where infections run high

York Region and Windsor-Essex are joining Toronto and Peel Region in lockdown as Ontario takes further steps to stem COVID-19 amid concerns restrictions are not going far enough with infection levels stuck at record highs.

Starting Monday, there will be no indoor restaurant dining, hair salons, gyms, theatres or non-essential retailers open in York Region, ending a pandemic workaround for residents of Toronto and Peel Region who were locked down almost three weeks ago but could venture there for shopping and haircuts.

Health Minister Christine El- liott said the move, which York Region fought a week ago, insisting its hospitals and public health department were coping, “is one we needed to make to help stop the spread of the virus and safeguard the key services we rely on.”

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti acknowledged 50 per cent of cases in the region are a result of close contact with others and said hospital capacity there is “reaching a tipping point.”

Windsor-Essex topped 100 new cases several days in a row and the health unit has ordered school classrooms to close because of outbreaks among students and clusters from youth hockey teams. Windsor Regional Hospital is cancelling scheduled surgeries starting Monday.

“Over the last week, public health indicators in the York and Windsor regions have continued to trend in the wrong direction and it is evident additional measures are needed,” said Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer.

Both York and Windsor-Essex have a rate of 106 cases per 100,000 residents in the last week, slightly below Toronto at 120. Peel Region is much higher at 206.

The chief executive of Toronto’s University Health Network said Premier Doug Ford’s government did not go far enough with lockdowns, given that indoor dining, gyms and retailers remain open in Durham Region, Halton Region and beyond, fuelling cases that continue to fill hospitals.

“Time to lockdown from Oshawa to Niagara, north to Barrie and west to London,” said Dr. Kevin Smith, adding healthcare workers “can’t sustain these demands and stresses.”

Elliott replied: “If we have to do more, we will.”

Three other regions — Middlesex-London, Simcoe-Muskoka and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph — were moved up Friday into the red or “control” zone of restrictions, which is one short of lockdown.

Hospitals in Scarborough, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Orangeville, Penetanguishene, Cambridge, Kitchener, London, Windsor, Niagara Falls are fighting “major outbreaks,” said president Anthony Dale of the Ontario Hospital Association, with “significant cancellation of scheduled surgeries a result.”

The number of people in hospital intensive care units with COVID-19 has reached levels not seen since late April as Ontario prepares for next week’s vaccine rollout for selected health-care workers.

With 250 critically ill coronavirus patients in intensive care, and that number rising at a faster clip recently, the province is days away from surpassing the high of 283 reached on April 12 in the explosive first wave of the pandemic.

“This is going to start to delay things like cancer care. This is going to start to delay things like cardiac care,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and a key member of the science table advising Ford’s government.

The first injections of COVID-19 vaccine from a first small shipment from Pfizer begin Tuesday at University Health Network and the Ottawa Hospital for 3,000 staff from nursing homes hardest hit by the virus.

Ontario reported 1,848 new cases of COVID-19 Friday. While that was down from a record 1,983 the previous day, the tally still pushed the sevenday moving average to an alltime high of 1,872. The new cases came with a record 63,051 tests processed.

There were 45 deaths, in addition to 35 reported Thursday.