COVID-19: Latest developments in the Greater Toronto Area on April 1

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

The City of Toronto says residents 60 years of age and older can begin to book their COVID-19 vaccine appointments beginning Friday at 8 a.m.

Anyone born in 1961 or earlier can register for any of the city-run sites across Toronto.

“I encourage every resident who is eligible to get vaccinated and to do it this Easter weekend if there can,” Mayor John Tory said Thursday afternoon.

2:50 COVID-19: Toronto asking province to lower age eligibility for mass vaccine sites to 60

The City of Toronto says Spring Break CampTO is now cancelled based on public health advice after the province activated the emergency brake in wake of surging COVID-19 numbers.

The camps were scheduled to run from April 12 to April 16 at more than 85 locations with over 1,000 people registered.

The City said it will be issuing refunds automatically for those who were registered.

The City said it will still be running CampTO virtual, with more than 950 spaces still open for the workshops being provided. Registration for these camps can be found here.

Ontario’s education minister Stephen Lecce said Thursday that schools will remain open as they are “critical for mental health and learning.”

He also previously said the April Break will go ahead as planned.

“Students deserve to be in class,” Lecce tweeted.

A statement from the City of Toronto says homeless residents in various encampments will no longer be forced to vacate on April 6 as health officials report four positive COVID-19 cases at a temporary shelter that would have housed them.

The statement said the cases at Novotel (45 The Esplanade), which is part of a program the City launched in March that moves homeless encampment residents into hotel rooms, are not linked to transmission at the hotel.

Toronto Public Health advised there not be new referrals to the hotel program at this time.

Health officials reported there have been 15 outbreaks and 329 positive cases of COVID-19 among staff and clients linked to shelter outbreaks.

Ontario reported a total of 2,557 new coronavirus cases on Thursday.

Of those:

• 743 were in Toronto
• 484 were in Peel Region
• 311 were in York Region
• 107 were in Durham Region
• 82 were in Halton Region

Ontario is reporting 2,557 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the eighth straight day cases are above 2,000, bringing the provincial total to 352,460.

It is also the highest case count since Jan. 22 when 2,662 new cases were reported amid the second wave.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,389 as 23 more deaths were recorded.

Resolved cases increased by 1,814 from the previous day. The government said 62,290 tests were processed in the last 24 hours.

As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the provincial government reported administering 2,276,313 total COVID-19 vaccine doses, representing an increase of 84,060 in the last day. There are 317,715 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

A group of Ontario’s ICU doctors and physicians have written an open letter to Premier Doug Ford’s government calling for more public health measures due to COVID-19 variant spread.

The doctors also said in letter that they are seeing younger people on ventilators, including parents of school-aged children. They said they are seeing entire families end up in their ICUs.

“About 4 in 10 patients who come to the ICU with COVID will die.”

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 44 current outbreaks in homes, which is an increase of one from the previous day.

The ministry also indicated there are currently 9 active cases among long-term care residents and 103 active cases among staff — down by one and up by two, respectively, in the last day.

Meanwhile, government figures show there have been a total of 13,278 school-related COVID-19 cases in Ontario to date. This is an increase of 249 more cases in the last day — 211 student cases, 36 staff cases and two individuals were not identified.

The COVID-19 cases are currently from 1,240 out of 4,828 schools in the province which is 25 per cent of schools. Sixty-three schools in Ontario are currently closed as a result of positive cases, the government indicated.

There have been a total of 3,730 confirmed cases within child care centres and homes — an increase of 59 (38 new child cases and 21 staff cases). Out of 5,279 child care centres in Ontario, 341 currently have cases and 89 centres are closed.