Here are the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Tuesday.
Outbreak resolved at Scarborough long-term care home where 81 died
A COVID-19 outbreak at a Scarborough long-term care home where 81 residents died is now considered resolved.
North York General Hospital, which helped Tendercare Living Centre manage the outbreak, said in a statement Tuesday that 108 residents and 105 staff members have resolved cases.
The statement said an outbreak is considered over 14 days after a resident or staff member last tested positive for the coronavirus.
Vaccine supply delays mean Ontario won’t meet Feb. 5 goal of vaccinating all LTC, high-risk retirement residents
Supply delays mean Ontario won’t meet its goal of giving all nursing-home residents the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Friday.
Health officials said all long-term care, high-risk retirement and First Nations elder care home residents will now receive their first shot by Feb. 10.
Ontario reports 745 new coronavirus cases, notes underestimation from data system migration
Ontario is reporting 745 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, an underestimation of the day’s count, bringing the provincial total to 270,925.
The Ontario government noted that Toronto Public Health migrated all of their data to the provincial data system called CCM and it impacted the daily count.
“Most notably, (Toronto Public Health’s) case count is negative following the identification of duplicate cases as well as data corrections to some fields (e.g., long-term care home residents and health care workers), resulting in an underestimation of today’s cases,” a government spokesperson said in an email.
The spokesperson also said case counts for other local public health units may be affected by the system outages related to the migration and “as a result, we anticipate fluctuations in case numbers over the next few days,” the spokesperson said.
The death toll in the province has risen to 6,238 as 14 more deaths were reported. Resolved cases increased by 2,297 from the previous day. The government said 28,552 tests were processed in the last 24 hours.
Status of cases in the GTA
Ontario reported a total of 745 new cases on Tuesday, an underestimation in cases:
Of those:
- -199 were in Toronto * due to data system migration
- 334 were in Peel Region
- 124 were in York Region
- 44 were in Durham Region
- 44 were in Halton Region
Ontario’s Wiarton Willie predicts an early spring for 2021 on Groundhog Day, virtually due to COVID-19
Over the years, crowds of people have shown up to see Ontario’s groundhog, Wiarton Willie, give his winter forecast prediction. Yet due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual event went virtual and a pre-produced video was posted online Tuesday morning.
However, Willie did not appear in the video and instead a white fur hat was tossed into the air. The official declaration that “it’s an early spring” was said by Mayor Janice Jackson of South Bruce Peninsula in the video.
Cases, outbreaks, deaths in Ontario long-term care homes
According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,578 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of 35 deaths. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.
There are 224 current outbreaks in homes, which down by six from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 855 active cases among long-term care residents and 838 active cases among staff — down by 76 cases and down by 76 cases, respectively, in the last day.
— With files from The Canadian Press