Ontario sees 2,202 new COVID-19 cases with lockdown looming
Ontario reported another 2,202 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the number of patients with the illness in intensive care climbed to its highest at any point during the pandemic.
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CBC News ·
Posted: Dec 22, 2020 10:30 AM ET | Last Updated: December 22, 2020
Hospitals in some of the hardest-hit areas of Ontario, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area, have warned that front-line workers are exhausted and reaching a breaking point.(Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Last Updated Tuesday, December 22, 2020 3:05PM EST Ontario is reporting more than 2,200 new cases of COVID-19 as the number of virus-related hospitalizations surpasses 1,000. Provincial health officials reported 2,202 new infections today, up from the 2,123 logged on Monday but down from the record 2,432 confirmed on Dec. 17. The rolling seven-day average of new infections in Ontario is now 2,265, up from 1,927 one week ago. With just 45,000 tests completed over the past 24 hours, the per cent positivity rate is also up to five per cent. This marks a notable drop in testing in the province after a record 69,412 tests were processed on Dec. 15. Today s per cent positivity rate is the highest it has been in the last six days but is still down from 5.4 per cent last Tuesday, when only 39,566 tests were completed on the previous day.
TORONTO There are now more COVID-19 patients in Ontario’s intensive care units than at any other point during the pandemic as concerns continue to mount around the health-care system’s ability to withstand the strain. The latest Critical Care Services Ontario report obtained by CP24 suggests that there were 285 COVID-19 patients in intensive care as of Dec. 21, exceeding the first wave peak of 283 for the first time. Nearly 40 per cent of all COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive care as of Dec. 21 were located in the Central health region, which covers a wide swath of territory that includes hospitals in Peel, Halton and York regions. Another 64 of the COVID patients in the ICU were in Toronto hospitals, including 21 at Toronto General Hospital and 11 at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Last Updated Thursday, December 17, 2020 3:48PM EST Ontario Premier Doug Ford appeared receptive Thursday to the idea that a widespread lockdown is needed to stop the alarming rise in COVID-19 infection across the province, suggesting the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area could be targeted. Repeating five times in 15 minutes that he would not hesitate to act and that “everything is on the table,” Ford remarked that the GTA and Hamilton area appears to be generating the lion’s share of infection as of late. “It s really concentrated in one area. And that s a GTA, and I ll throw Hamilton, GTHA,” Ford said. “That s where we re seeing the spread to the exception of Halton. Halton’s still about 55 (cases per 100,000), but the other cases are just growing at a rapid pace. So everything s on the table.”
Half of Scarborough ICU patients have COVID-19 as vulnerable workers, families bear brunt of pandemic
The hospital system in Toronto s Scarborough neighbourhood has been flooded with COVID-19 patients during the pandemic’s second wave, with nearly half the total number of intensive care patients across the area’s three hospital sites now battling the illness.
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