Ontario to announce new COVID-19 restrictions and projections of up to 18K cases per day: reports
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Ontario is set to release new COVID-19 modelling numbers today that reportedly project that the province could see as many as 12,000 to 18,000 new cases daily by the end of May, despite the current stay-at-home order.
Premier Doug Ford’s cabinet is now considering imposing tighter restrictions to curb the worrisome surge in COVID-19 cases, which, sources say, could lead to up to 1,800 patients in intensive care by the end of next month, if current trends continue, CTV reports.
The new measures, expected to be announced Friday afternoon, could include further restrictions on non-essential retail, limits on non-essential manufacturing and warehouse and stronger enforcement of its ongoing stay-at-home order, CBC News reports.
Additional restrictions on religious services are also being looked at by cabinet, according to CTV News.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the province’s associate medical officer of health said Thursday that additional recommendations have been made to cabinet.
She described the situation in the province as “dire”. “At some of the previous press conferences I have referred to the situation as worrisome, and even scary. What is truly scary is that when I used those words before, our rates and our trends were nowhere near where we find ourselves today.”
Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said “everything is on the table” when asked about possible new restrictions on Thursday.
On Thursday night, cabinet decided against imposing a curfew with some saying that it could cause more harm than good.
“I think the Montreal riots speak to the challenge of both enforcing, and people’s willingness to do a curfew,” Jones said.
The last modelling update released on April 1 showed that the province could reach up to 6,000 cases a day by the end of April and twice that by the end of next month. It also indicated that COVID-19 ICU admissions in Ontario will likely reach 800 by the end of April.
At the time, members of the science table said a provincewide shutdown and stay-at-home order was needed to control the third wave of the pandemic. Ford announced a provincewide shutdown that same day but did not impose a stay-at-home order until a week later.
The head of the Ontario Hospital Association said Friday the latest data from Critical Care Services Ontario show 684 COVID-19 patients in adult intensive care units, including 74 new admissions.
Ontario’s seven-day average for daily cases had jumped by 36 per cent in one week — to 4,208, Yaffe said on Thursday.
Ontario reported another record in new daily COVID-19 infections on Friday.
The province logged 4,812 new cases today, up from Thursday’s record of 4,736.
It is also reporting 25 more deaths related to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 1,469 of the new cases are in Toronto, 851 are in Peel Region, 491 are in York Region, 366 are in Ottawa and 268 are in Durham Region.
“Things are not going to get better if we don’t change,” Yaffe said. “Things will, in fact, get worse. So, that’s the bottom line.”
The modelling report is due to be released at 1 p.m. today and the new restrictions will be announced at 2:30 p.m. Follow our live coverage of the announcements below.