COVID-19: Toronto to fence off High Park cherry blossoms; Ontario reports 4,156 new cases

April 14, 2021

A person rides a bike past a gallery with a photo in the window on Dundas West in Toronto

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Doug Ford asks people not to fly in and out of Ontario

3:45 pm During a news conference with three other premiers today, Doug Ford asked Canadians not to travel in or out of Ontario during the third wave.

“We’re encouraging all residents of each province to stay at home, not to be flying into Ontario and out of Ontario,” he said. “We’re in a critical situation right now.”

Ford was responding to a question about Quebec health officials who are urging tighter border controls between provinces due to fast-spreading variants of concern.

Toronto reports 1,332 new COVID-19 cases

3:38 pm During a press briefing at city hall today, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa reported a daily increase of 1,332 new COVID-19 cases. There have been 90 new hospitalizations, bringing the total number of patients in hospital to 730. Of those, 124 people are in Toronto ICUs. The total number of confirmed variant cases is 12,152 and almost all are the B117 variant.

Toronto to fence off cherry blossoms in High Park again

2:45 pm The Bloom Cam is coming back. Mayor John Tory announced today that the city will fence off three areas in High Park with the highest concentration of cherry blossom trees to discourage people from flocking to the park during peak bloom, which is due to take place in a week’s time.

Unlike last year during the first wave, High Park will remain open. “People will be able to walk, run or bike through the park but we are encouraging people not to flock to the park to see the cherry blossoms,” Tory said.

Like last year, the city is bringing back the Bloom Cam, a 24-hour livestream that allows people to see the trees from home. The mayor said last year’s livestream was the most popular in city history, with 200,000 people tuning in.

“Parks and other city staff will be on the site to continuously monitor what is going on to ensure those measures are successful in avoiding crowd scenes,” Tory said.

High Park will be open to cyclists and pedestrians but closed to vehicles during peak bloom.

Scarborough Health Network cancels 10,000 vaccination appointments

11:55 am Scarborough Health Network is temporarily shutting down two COVID-19 vaccination clinics effective today due to lack of vaccine supply.

The clinics are at Centennial College and Centenary hospital.

“We know that this is very disappointing to families across Scarborough,” the hospital network said on Twitter. “We will reopen our clinics as soon as we receive more vaccines. We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Health and Toronto Public Health to confirm future vaccine shipments.”

SHN confirmed to CP24 that the closures will result in 10,000 cancelled appointments, mostly for people age 50 and up living in hot spot neighbourhoods.

Clinic teams are calling people to reschedule appointments “at the next available opportunity,” SHN said.

❗Scarborough COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic update❗

Our clinics at Centenary hospital & Centennial College will be closed starting today due to vaccine supply.

?Learn more?

1/6 pic.twitter.com/5NV3Lb62ax
— Scarborough Health Network (@SHNcares) April 14, 2021

Ontario’s seven-day average for new cases passes 4,000

11 am The province’s seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases crossed the 4,000 mark for the first time on April 14.

Ontario confirmed a daily increase of 4,156 new cases, bringing the moving average – which experts consider a more accurate indication of virus spread – to 4,003. The province confirmed 3,670 new cases on Tuesday, 4,401 on Monday, 4,456 on Sunday and 3,813 on Saturday.

Another 28 people have died in the past day, including one person between ages 20 and 39 and two people between ages 40 and 59. That’s the highest daily death toll the province has seen since February.

To date, the virus has killed 7,610 people in Ontario.

Labs completed 54,211 tests in the past day, making for a positivity rate of 8.6 per cent, which is up from 6.7 per cent a week ago. More than 45,200 tests are being processed.

Fifty-five more people were hospitalized in the past day, bringing the total number of patients in hospital province-wide to 1,877. There is a record-high 642 patients in intensive care units, including 442 on ventilators.

“Locally, there are 1,254 new cases in Toronto, 593 in Peel, 476 in York Region, 340 in Ottawa and 248 in Durham,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Twitter.

Almost 4,000 cases of the B117 variant were confirmed in the past day. The variant is now the dominant strain of the virus. Labs confirmed another three cases of B1351 and 33 more cases of P1.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 398,835 total COVID-19 cases reported in Ontario.

An additional 111,817 doses of the vaccine were given in the past day. As of 8 pm last night, the province had administered 3,442,974 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 804,008 in Toronto.