Here are the latest developments on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Saturday.
More than 565,000 vaccine doses administered in Toronto to date
More than 565,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Toronto to date, City officials said Saturday.
Those aged 60 and older are now eligible to be vaccinated at City-operated mass immunization clinics.
Since the eligibility was expanded Friday, 33,011 more appointments were booked, bringing the total number of appointments booked at City-run clinics to 113,602 as of Saturday morning, officials said.
Officials said there are still appointments available throughout the weekend. Those who are eligible can book a time to receive their shot here or by phone at 1-888-999-6488.
Some health-care organizations, including Michael Garron Hospital, Humber River Hospital and North Western Toronto Ontario Health Team, are also vaccinating residents aged 50 and older in priority neighbourhoods.
Toronto launches multilingual advertising campaign urging people to get vaccinated
The City of Toronto is launching a new advertising campaign starting next week urging eligible residents to get vaccinated.
The campaign will be in multiple languages and will appear on radio, TV, as well as in newspapers and digital platforms.
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Officials said the campaign will be in addition to English ads that have been running since mid-March.
“In a city as diverse as Toronto, it’s critically important that we communicate information to residents in their preferred language,” Mayor John Tory said.
“The best way to protect ourselves and end this pandemic is for all of us to get vaccinated.”
Ontario now under provincewide ‘shutdown’
Public health restrictions have tightened across Ontario as the province is now under a “shutdown.”
The measures were introduced to combat what Premier Doug Ford calls an “alarming” surge in COVID-19 infections and are set to last for four weeks.
Status of cases in the GTA
Ontario reported a total of 3,009 new coronavirus cases on Saturday.
Of those:
- 954 were in Toronto
- 434 were in Peel Region
- 348 were in York Region
- 138 were in Durham Region
- 91 were in Halton Region
Ontario reports nearly 6,100 new cases over past 2 days
Ontario reported 6,098 coronavirus cases over the past two days, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 358,558.
On Friday, 3,089 cases were reported and on Saturday 3,009 were reported, marking the largest single-day case counts since Jan. 17, when 3,422 were announced.
The province didn’t provide updated COVID-19 figures on Good Friday with it being a holiday.
Thirty-nine additional virus-related deaths were also reported over the past two days, with 23 on Friday and 16 on Saturday, bringing the provincial death toll to 7,428.
A total of 327,940 COVID-19 cases are considered resolved, which is up by 3,744 over the two days and is 91.5 per cent of all confirmed cases.
More than 2.4 million vaccines now administered in Ontario
As of 8 p.m. Friday, 2,424,063 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Ontario — 88,183 more shots were administered ahead of Friday’s report and 59,567 ahead of Saturday’s.
So far, 321,469 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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