Here is a roundup of the latest developments on the novel coronavirus pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Tuesday:
Ontario reports 446 cases, 17 deaths
Ontario reported 446 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 28,709.
The death toll has risen to 2,293, as 17 more deaths were reported.
Meanwhile, 22,484 people have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which is 78 per cent of cases.
Ontario has completed 747,964 tests so far for the virus. This is up 15,244 tests from the previous day.
Status of cases in Toronto
There are 11,513 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Toronto, an increase of 175 since Monday.
A total of 8,783 cases are considered resolved.
There are 384 people in hospital with the virus, with 82 in intensive care.
There have been 835 COVID-19-related deaths in the city.
Hundreds of positive tests not reported to public health units
Hundreds of positive coronavirus tests weren’t reported to public health units in Ontario, meaning some people tested positive for COVID-19 and were never notified.
Ontario Health, which has set up laboratories across the province for testing, acknowledged the error in a statement to Global News.
“In this case, there was a breakdown in communication and a number of positive tests were not communicated to the public health units,” Ontario Health said.
Province poised to extend state of emergency
Premier Doug Ford is set to ask the Ontario legislature to extend the state of emergency for another four weeks.
Ford confirmed the news during his press conference on Monday, but would not say when further restrictions may be eased.
“We’re working very aggressively on coming up with a plan to get the economy going based on the numbers,” Ford said. “Four weeks is a long time. So a lot of things can happen in the four weeks, especially if we see the numbers come down.”
Toronto urges province to collect race-based data
The chair of the Toronto Board of Health is calling on the province to collect race-based data for COVID-19 cases.
Toronto Public Health has been proactively collecting and analyzing race-based data on cases in the city, but the province is currently not collecting this data and has not required the 34 local health units across Ontario to collect it, Cressy said.
“The old adage of ‘what gets measured gets done’ is especially relevant right now,” Cressy said in a statement.
“Toronto’s data has shown that while we’re all susceptible to the virus, parts of the city are more impacted than others.”
— With files from Kevin Nielsen
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