COVID-19: Latest developments in the Greater Toronto Area on March 25

Here are the latest developments on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Thursday.

In the kitchen of Paramount Fine Foods in Burlington, Ont., the team is hard at work cooking hundreds of hot meals.

The restaurant is closed to indoor dining to comply with COVID-19 guidelines so the tables are empty, but the workers are busy.

There is chicken roasting, salad tossing, and baklava and water bottles being carefully placed in shiny black boxes. Soon, the lunches will be packed into several waiting vehicles and delivered to three long-term care homes in Hamilton and Burlington.

The Ontario government is allegedly looking at making the option of remote learning permanent for all boards across the province moving forward.

Global News has not independently confirmed the contents of the documents. However both the presidents of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) confirmed they had staff attend a meeting with the ministry on Monday where the idea was discussed.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce told reporters at Queen’s Park on Thursday the province will release a decision as to how online learning could be implemented into the education system moving forward in the coming weeks.

Ontario would like to see migrant farm workers vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they arrive and is willing to take on the task if Ottawa doesn’t, a top provincial health official said Thursday.

Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate medical officer of health, said the province is in talks with the federal government to have the temporary foreign workers given a vaccine “when they come in, optimally at the airport.”

“We’re working with the federal government on this, hopefully they will be OK to do it,” Yaffe told reporters. “If they don’t do it, we will probably do it because it’s important.”

Ontario reported a total of 2,380 new coronavirus cases on Thursday.

Of those:

• 1,016 were in Toronto
• 294 were in Peel Region
• 244 were in York Region
• 90 were in Durham Region
• 53 were in Halton Region

Ontario is reporting 2,380 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 336,070.

However, Thursday’s case count is an overestimation by about 280 cases due to data catch-up related to the provincial system, the Ontario government said.

Despite the inclusion of older cases, Ontario still recorded more than 2,000 new infections. The province hasn’t seen a figure that high since the tail-end of the surge at the end of January.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,280 as 17 more deaths were recorded.

The government said 60,077 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. Resolved cases increased by 1,329 from the previous day.

According to the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there have been 3,753 deaths reported among residents and patients in long-term care homes across Ontario which did not increase from yesterday. Eleven virus-related deaths in total have been reported among staff.

There are 46 current outbreaks in homes, which is a decrease of six from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently eight active cases among long-term care residents and 95 active cases among staff — down by three and down by nine, respectively, in the last day.

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 11,840 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date. This is an increase of 174 more cases in the day — 125 student cases and 39 staff cases.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,033 out of 4,828 schools in the province. Forty-three schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,409 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 47 (30 new child cases and 17 staff cases). Out of 5,279 child care centres in Ontario, 263 currently have cases and 59 centres are closed.

— With files from Caryn Lieberman and The Canadian Press

NOTE: This page will be updated throughout the day.