Health

Ontario sees 3,338 new COVID-19 cases as death toll tops 5,000

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Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, is scheduled to hold a briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the province at 3 p.m. in Toronto.

You’ll be able to watch it live in this story.


Ontario reported another 3,338 cases of COVID-19 on Monday, as well as 29 more deaths of people with the illness — pushing the province’s total death toll to more than 5,000.

The new cases include 931 in Toronto, 531 in Peel Region, 241 in York Region, 168 in Niagara Region and 165 in Waterloo Region.

Other public health units that saw double- or triple-digit increases were:

  • Ottawa: 159
  • Hamilton: 146
  • Durham Region: 143
  • Middlesex-London: 141
  • Windsor-Essex: 118
  • Lambton: 90
  • Simcoe-Muskoka: 84
  • Halton Region: 81
  • Southwestern: 81
  • Eastern Ontario: 69
  • Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 56
  • Huron-Perth: 27
  • Chatham-Kent: 21
  • Brant County: 14
  • Sudbury: 11

(Note: All of the figures used in this story are found on the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard or in its Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, because local units report figures at different times.)

Combined, the additional cases bring the seven-day average of new daily cases to a record high 3,555.

There are now 30,632 confirmed, actives cases of COVID-19 provincewide.

The number of patients with COVID-19 in hospitals climbed to 1,563, 80 more admissions than yesterday. Of those, 387 are being treated in intensive care and 268 require a ventilator to breathe, a new pandemic high in the province.

Notably, Critical Care Services Ontario, which produces an internal report on ICU admissions and capacity each morning, puts Ontario’s current ICU figure at 409, according to Anthony Dale, president of the Ontario Hospital Association. 

The figures come as government sources told CBC News that revised projections, set to be released tomorrow, forecast the province’s intensive care units to be filled beyond capacity by early February. The modelling also suggests that Ontario is on track to see up to 6,000 new cases per day by the end of this month. 

In a brief statement this morning, Premier Doug Ford said his cabinet will meet later today to discuss proposals for additional COVID-19 restrictions in the province, with an announcement detailing the further measures scheduled for tomorrow.

While Ford has repeatedly said that “nothing is off the table” with regard to potential restrictions, CBC News has learned that a curfew is currently not among the government’s plans. The idea of a curfew, similar to the one recently implemented in Quebec, was floated late last week as a possibility.

Ontario’s network of labs processed 46,403 test samples for the novel coronavirus and reported a test positivity rate of 7.7 per cent. Another 28,774 tests are in the queue to be completed.

The 29 additional deaths in today’s update bring Ontario’s official toll to 5,012. The first COVID-19-linked death was reported on March 19, 2020.

The province says it administered 8,859 more doses of COVID-19 vaccines yesterday. As of 8 p.m. Sunday, a total of 122,105 doses have been given in Ontario.

Meanwhile, elementary school students across northern Ontario returned to in-class learning this morning.

The northern portion of the province is allowed to return to school buildings as positivity rates for COVID-19 in that region are relatively low.

All students began their winter term with online learning this month and the government announced last week that students in southern Ontario will continue attending classes remotely until at least Jan. 25.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced Saturday that the list of essential workers eligible for emergency child care would be expanded.

It now includes RCMP officers, custodial and clerical education workers and postal staff.



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