COVID-19 is spreading “aggressively” in Toronto, the city’s top doctor said on Monday, December 7.
Speaking during a press conference at city hall, Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa said Toronto has confirmed just over 4,100 cases of the virus since the beginning of the month, as well as 68 deaths.
“The case counts are so high that I can only call this a very, very serious situation,” she said. “There is no way to argue otherwise.”
Toronto reported 651 new infections in the past 24 hours. There are now 227 people in hospital and 57 in intensive care units.
De Villa said she is concerned about cases surging in January following the week surrounding Christmas and New Year’s Eve. She urged city residents to celebrate holidays only with people they live with or virtually if possible.
“Contact between people especially from December 24 to New Year’s Day could easily amplify the number of infections we’re seeing right now,” she said.
She advised people who live alone to follow provincial public health advice and consider exclusively celebrating with one additional household.
University and college students should consider doing a self-quarantine or reducing close contact with others 10 to 14 days before coming home for the holidays, she added.
“I agree that all of this is the right advice. I do not believe that it is safe to do otherwise. I do not believe that it is worth it to do otherwise,” de Villa said. “I can’t be any plainer than that.”
The city’s seven-day moving average for new cases is now 506. Here are Toronto’s daily COVID-19 case counts for the month of December:
December 1: 761
December 2: 438
December 3: 421
December 4: 671
December 5: 550
December 6: 609
December 7: 651
Ontario reports a record 1,925 new COVID-19 cases
Earlier in the day, Ontario reported a record high of 1,925 cases of COVID-19, the third consecutive day new cases have climbed to new heights.
The province detected 1,924 new cases on Sunday, 1,859 on Saturday and 1,780 on Friday.
Another 26 people have died in the past day, including 13 long-term care residents. There are currently 113 long-term care homes in outbreak out of 626 across the province.
Regionally, there are 601 new cases in Toronto, 512 in Peel, 167 in York Region and a jump of 133 in Durham Region.
The new seven-day rolling average is 1,820. Ontario surpassed 16,000 active cases, with 16,034 being reported on December 7. Hospitalizations have reached 725, with 213 patients in intensive care and 121 on ventilators.
The province completed 45,283 tests in the past 24 hours, marking a 4.3 per cent positivity rate.
There are 138 additional school-related cases, 109 among students and 29 among staff. There are 803 schools with a reported case, making up just under 17 per cent of all Ontario schools. 10 schools are currently closed due to an outbreak.
There have been 129,234 total COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date, including 109,402 resolved – an increase of 1,412 from the day before. There have been 3,798 deaths.
New COVID-19 cases in Ontario on December 7
The following regions reported five or more new cases of COVID-19:
Toronto = 601
Peel = 512
York Region = 167
Durham Region = 133
City of Hamilton = 76
Region of Waterloo = 61
Simcoe Muskoka = 60
Halton Region = 54
Ottawa = 48
Windsor-Essex County = 46
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph = 30
Niagara Region = 27
Middlesex-London = 23
Eastern Ontario = 22
Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox &
Addington = 11
Huron Perth = 10
Thunder Bay District = 9
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District = 7
Southwestern = 6
Brant County = 6
This story has been updated
