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Premier Doug Ford will hold a press conference starting at 1pm at Queen’s Park. Ford’s office says it will be joined by several government ministers.
You can watch it live in this story.
On Thursday, Ontario reported 1,824 more cases of COVID-19 and hit a key threshold for the number of ICU patients ahead of schedule.
As of Thursday, 203 patients with the disease are currently being treated in intensive care, according to a report by Critical Care Services Ontario.
The number of ICU patients is substantial because public health officials have said 150 is the threshold by which unrelated schedules and procedures can be postponed or canceled to accommodate the influx of COVID-19 patients.
Models detailed by health officials on November 26 predicted that the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care would not exceed 200 by next week, putting the province five days ahead of predicted scenarios.
“It’s worrying that we’re ahead of our time,” said Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of intensive care at Michael Garron Hospital on Toronto’s eastern edge.
While some hospitals across Ontario have been largely unaffected by the second wave of COVID-19, those in the hotspots are under increasing pressure, he added. According to Warner, 18% of all ICU patients in Toronto hospitals have COVID-19. This figure rises to 24 percent in the York and Halton regions.
Additionally, Grand River Hospital in the Waterloo region suspended surgery this week after its intensive care unit reached capacity. And in Windsor-Essex, Windsor Regional Hospital said a large number of patients were straining the entire regional health system and had made it necessary to impose severe restrictions on visitors in an effort to reduce transmission of the virus.
The total number of ICU admissions during the first wave of the disease in the spring reached 270, Warner said, but hospitals have been able to cope better because non-COVID-19 related procedures and treatments have been canceled.
This time, he explained, it’s not an option.
“There would be too much collateral damage,” Warner told CBC Toronto.
Likewise, the Ontario Hospital Association has urged the public to continue to follow public health guidelines in an effort to address capacity issues.
“Ontario hospitals are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain access to vital surgeries and procedures with COVID-19 cases on the rise,” the organization said in a statement posted on social media.
“Hospitals are doing everything they can, but they need your support. Help stop the spread by making best practice choices every day.”
592 new cases in the Peel region, 396 in Toronto
New cases reported today include 592 in the Peel region, 396 in Toronto, and 187 in the York region. The Middlesex-London Public Health Unit also recorded 127 additional cases, although the provincial health ministry said that due to a processing error, that figure includes three days of case data.
Other public health units that saw double-digit increases were:
- Waterloo Region: 87
- Halton Region: 68
- Windsor-Essex: 62
- Durham Region: 57
- Hamilton: 56
- Ottawa: 41
- Niagara Region: 25
- Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 23
- Eastern Ontario: 19
- Thunder Bay: 13
- Simcoe Muskoka: 11
Also included in today’s new cases are 122 school-related: 94 students and 28 staff members. About 755 of Ontario’s 4,828 publicly funded schools, or about 15.6%, currently have at least one case of COVID-19, while five schools are currently closed due to the disease.
The additional infections push the seven-day average of new cases per day to a record high of 1,769.
(Note: All figures used for new cases in this story can be found on the Ontario Ministry of Health COVID-19 dashboard or in its daily epidemiological summary. The number of cases for each region may differ from public health reporting. local unit because local units report figures at different times.)
The Ontario network of laboratories processed 52,873 test samples and reported a test positive rate of 4.4%. Another 58,320 tests have been added to the queue to be completed.
The province reported another 14 deaths of people with COVID-19, bringing the official toll to 3,712.
A group of teachers refuses to work in the affected school
Meanwhile, at a school in one of Toronto’s worst-hit neighborhoods, a group of teachers refuse to work.
Three of Thorncliffe Park Public School’s 30 staff members have “started the job denial process and are not in the school,” Toronto District School Board spokesman Brad Ross said.
“In the meantime, their classes are covered by other non-basic staff from the school and we are working with the Ministry of Labor and specific staff to address the concerns.”
Earlier this week, 18 students and one staff member tested positive for the novel coronavirus through an asymptomatic testing pilot project.
About 270 students and 17 staff members isolate themselves, but the school remains open.
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