Here are the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Tuesday.
Stay-at-home order lifted in 27 Ontario regions as economic reopening continues
The units will now return to the province’s COVID-19 colour-coded tiered ranking system used prior to a provincewide lockdown which began on Boxing Day.
Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and North Bay Parry Sound are set to remain under the stay-at-home order until at least Feb. 22.
Pickering mayor urges residents from other regions to stay away
Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan is urging residents from other regions to stay away from the city after Durham Region moved into the red zone of Ontario’s coronavirus response framework on Tuesday.
The red category is one level short of a lockdown, but allowed for the loosening of some restrictions, including limited in-person dining.
“We’re asking people from outside of the region not to take this opportunity to visit Pickering. We would very much like to see you when things loosen up,” Ryan said.
“But in the meantime, we want to make sure there’s capacity for our local residents and we want everybody to be safe. We want our residents to be safe and we want you to be safe so we’re asking you to stay in place.”
Ryan said he is concerned that visitors from other regions currently could contribute to the spread of COVID-19 variants.
Heavy snowfall in Toronto area forces some school boards to close in-person learning
Some Greater Toronto Area school boards were closed to in-person learning on Tuesday — the first day back to the classroom for some after the region was dumped with heavy snowfall overnight.
Ontario school boards to conduct asymptomatic testing in 5 per cent of schools per week
In a memo to the chairs of Ontario school boards, Education Minister Stephen Lecce ordered Tuesday that asymptomatic tests be carried out in at least five per cent of schools every week, starting Feb. 22 in schools outside Toronto, York and Peel.
The requirement took effect in those three regions on Tuesday.
Health minister says Ontario not ready to release more detailed COVID-19 vaccine plan
Ontario is not ready to release a detailed plan for its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines because its supply of the shots has been unreliable, the province’s health minister said Tuesday.
Ontario reports 964 new coronavirus cases on Family Day Monday, 904 on Tuesday
Ontario is reporting 964 new coronavirus cases on Family Day Monday and 904 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 287,736.
The provincial government did not release Ontario COVID-19 numbers on Monday due to the holiday and released two sets of data on Tuesday.
The death toll in the province has risen to 6,719 as 13 more deaths were reported on each day, totaling 26 deaths in two days.
Resolved cases increased by 2,285 from the last two days — 1,273 on Monday and 1,012 on Tuesday. The government said 27,005 tests were processed in the last 24 hours and 30,355 tests for the previous 24 hours.
Status of cases in the GTA
Ontario reported a total of 904 new cases on Tuesday.
Of those:
- 320 were in Toronto
- 154 were in Peel Region
- 118 were in York Region
- 37 were in Durham Region
- 44 were in Halton Region
Cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ontario long-term care homes
According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,717 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which is an increase of three deaths. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.
There are 170 current outbreaks in homes, which is unchanged from the previous day.
The ministry also indicated there are currently 269 active cases among long-term care residents and 391 active cases among staff — down by one case for both in the last day.
— With files from The Canadian Press