Face of Nation International : Ontario reported 170 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday morning, the largest single-day increase in the province since the outbreak began. The additional cases bring the provincial tally to 858. That total includes 15 deaths and eight cases that are resolved.
Of the people infected, 29 are in ICU in hospital, 20 of them on ventilators. Two of the patients are in their 20s. Information for dozens more cases is listed as “pending.” Ontario saw six new deaths reported since Wednesday morning, when officials reported a total of nine. At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Ontario’s associate chief medical officer of health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, said of the new deaths, one was in Ottawa, three were in Toronto and two were in Durham Region.
Yaffe added that of the cases that have had their public health investigation completed, exposure information is still missing for about 38 per cent. A quarter of the cases are believed to have taken place through community spread. “We do know 60 per cent had travelled in the days prior to becoming ill, 15 per cent had a close contact with a close case, 25 per cent had neither a history of travel nor contact with a confirmed case, so they were likely acquired in the community,” Yaffe said.
“Those who travelled outside of Canada, the United States and Europe remain the most popular destinations.” Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams said at an afternoon news conference that the number of cases across the country are “going up rapidly,” and he would not be surprised to see a further jump in Ontario.
He pointed out that social distancing and physical separation measures first kicked in about two weeks ago with the announcement of schools closing beyond the March break and people being told not to travel. “At the same time on that weekend announcement, people started to return — having been away — in ever increasing numbers. It especially escalated during the week starting Monday the 16th and growing in that time,” Williams said.
“I think if you look at the timelines … it’s not surprising that we’re going to see our numbers rising right now because the number of people that started to come back into Canada started to rise over the weekend after the 12th and 13th … and we knew that more and more came back during the week of the 16th up until this past weekend. “So, it would not be surprising to me to see our numbers in the next few days go up again,” Williams added.
He explained that there are two things that could impact the numbers — more people coming back from overseas and potentially incubating; and the province’s lab testing capabilities starting to ramp up even further. (Source: CBC News – Canada)
