Ontario extends lockdown in Toronto and Peel to January 4

December 18, 2020Julia Mastroianni and NOW Staff

A photo of Ontario Premier Doug Ford on November 30, 2020

Update (December 18, 4:40 pm): This story has been updated with the confirmation of the lockdown extension in Toronto and Peel, and quotes from Doug Ford and Theresa Tam.

As new COVID-19 cases topped 2,000 for the fourth consecutive day, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said lockdown measures set to expire on Monday in Toronto and Peel Region will be extended to at least January 4.

Speaking at Queen’s Park on Friday afternoon, Ford said the government will hold an emergency meeting over the weekend and announce specific plans on Monday, December 21 at 1 pm.

“As for the lockdowns in the areas that are locked down right now that are expiring on Monday, I can tell you they won’t be expiring,” he said. “We’re going to continue on with the lockdowns within those regions and we’ll have additional information on Monday for the balance of the province.”

Later on in a news release, the government said the lockdown measures in Toronto and Peel Region would be “re-assessed” on January 4.

“With public health indicators continuing to worsen in Toronto and Peel, we are making the difficult but necessary decision to extend public health measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, protect our hospital capacity and safeguard the key services we rely on,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a statement.

Since Toronto and Peel moved into lockdown, COVID-19 cases have continued to rise in both areas.

Toronto’s cases went from 37.5 per cent to 127.5 cases per 100,000 people, the government said, and Peel’s case rate went up 8.6 per cent to 199.1 cases per 100,000 people.

Hospitalizations rose by 54 per cent in Peel and 40.9 per cent in Toronto, leading hospitals to delay surgeries and other procedures.

The province said testing positivity rates also remain well above the 2.5 per cent high-alert threshold, at 8.5 per cent in Peel and 5.8 per cent in Toronto.

Provincial public health officials are still determining whether stricter measures are needed in both regions, the government said.

Ontario is also moving Hamilton into the lockdown level of the COVID-19 response framework on December 21 at 12:01 am. Hospitalizations in the city have doubled and the case rate jumped 25.8 per cent to 103.3 cases per 100,000 people.

Earlier in the day, Ford said he was convening and emergency meeting with hospital leaders to discuss an expansion of pandemic lockdown measures in hotspot regions.

Additionally on December 21, Niagara Region and Brant County are moving to the red level of the framework, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington are moving into orange, Timiskaming is moving into yellow and Sudbury is moving into green.

Ford: “Everything is on the table”

Ford tweeted “everything is on the table” when it comes to the next steps for the province’s COVID-19 response.

“I’m convening an emergency meeting today with Minister [Christine] Elliott, Dr. [David] Williams and Ontario’s hospital leaders to discuss next steps to break the concerning trends in cases and hospitals in our province,” he said.

The Ontario Hospital Association has called for a four-week lockdown in every public health unit with an infection rate of 40 new cases per 100,000 people or higher.

Temporary lockdown measures in Toronto and Peel Region are set to expire on Monday, December 21.

Hospitals in the GTA are concerned staff will become overwhelmed in a post-holiday surge in infections if stricter measures are not implemented.

Ontario reported 2,290 new COVID-19 cases and 40 new deaths on December 18.

Toronto Public Health (TPH) confirmed a single-day increase of 758 new cases. There are 268 people hospitalized in the city with COVID-19.

TPH also moved the health system capacity indicator related to local hospitals to yellow on Toronto’s COVID-19 monitoring dashboard.

“The yellow category score is assigned when our ICU, and/or ventilator and/or acute bed capacities show sustained decreases and are trending away from established goals,” the city said in a statement. “This is the first time this indicator has been in the yellow category since the resurgence of COVID-19 activity that took place in Toronto this fall.

“Virus spread and containment, laboratory testing and public health system capacity are all in the red, with indicators continually trending away from established goals,” the statement adds.

Theresa Tam: “Stricter measures should be put in place”

During a press briefing in Ottawa on Friday afternoon, Canada’s top doctor said the epidemic is accelerating in many parts of the country and stricter measures are needed to bend and flatten the curve.

“Based on what I’ve seen in terms of the epidemic trajectory, we’re still accelerating, we’re still increasing,” said Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam. “The epidemic curve in many parts of the country is not bending. Provinces like Ontario will have to evaluate their measures.”

She added the effects of any new measures will not be apparent for a week to two weeks.

“I believe that in many areas of the country stricter measures should be put in place as soon as possible given that we’re not seeing this decelerating,” she said.

Tam noted the most “troubling” public health indicator is hospitalizations because the current increase in COVID patients is a reflection of trends from two weeks ago.

John Tory: “We should be doing more not less”

Earlier this week, Toronto Mayor John Tory called for stricter measures that apply across the region to stop people from travelling between cities.

“Going back to the good old days, as much as we might want to, is just not in the cards,” Tory said on Wednesday. “And the fact is we should be doing more and not less.”

The province detected a record high of 2,432 new cases on Thursday, 2,139 on Wednesday and 2,275 on Tuesday.

The seven-day moving average, which public health officials consider a more accurate picture of the province’s caseload than daily counts, is now 2,089.

Last Friday the seven-day average was 1,872.

Today’s increase also pushed the province’s total cases past the 150,000 mark.

To date, the province has recorded a total of 151,257 COVID-19 cases, including 129,417 resolved – up 1,992 from the day before. 4,098 people have died from the virus.

The GTHA and Windsor continue to lead the province in daily case growth.

“Locally, there are 691 new cases in Toronto, 361 in Peel, 296 in York Region, 207 in Windsor-Essex County and 126 in Hamilton,” health minister Christine Elliott wrote on Twitter.

There are currently 17,742 confirmed active cases in the province and 877 hospitalizations. Of those patients, 261 are in intensive care and 168 are on ventilators.

Ontario completed 68,246 tests in the past 24 hours, marking a 3.9 per cent positivity rate.

Of the additional 40 people who have died in the past day, one was between the ages of 20 and 39 and two were between the ages of 40 and 59.

Of the deaths reported on December 18, 11 were among long-term care residents.

School-related cases accounted for 133 of the new cases being reported, with 111 among students and 22 among staff.