As Premier Doug Ford continues to consult with hospital administrators this weekend on a possible lockdown, Ontario is reporting more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases for a sixth consecutive day.
The number includes another 25 deaths, which is two fewer than the 27 deaths reported on Saturday, but the number of people in hospitals and ICU continues to climb.
There have been 4,150 deaths related to COVID-19. Sunday’s total of 2,316 cases marks the second highest number of new cases in a single day since a pandemic emergency was declared back in March. The total is based on 69,412 tests.
Long-term care homes continue to account for most new cases. The province announced some $1.9 billion in funding earlier this week to hire more personal support workers in long-term care facilities.
The news was welcomed by unions representing workers, but hospital administrators calling for a four-week lockdown warn hospitals are reaching the breaking point.
As of December 20, there are 875 people in hospital with COVID-19. That’s 20 fewer than Saturday, but there are five more people in ICU (261) and 10 more people on ventilators (156) compared to yesterday.
Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam noted in her daily update on December 19 that increased hospitalizations and deaths, which tend to lag behind new case numbers by one to several weeks, are already contributing to a backlog in elective surgeries.
She also points out that while cases continue to mount in high-risk populations, remote and Indigenous communities are also seeing marked increases in the number of new cases. Nunavut recorded its first two COVID-related deaths today.
The latest national data indicates daily averages of 6,653 new cases for the week of December 11-17. Modelling by Simon Fraser University suggests that the number may surpass more than 8,000 by the beginning of January 2021.
