COVID-19: Latest developments in the Greater Toronto Area on April 20

Here are the latest developments on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Tuesday:

The Region of Peel and the City of Toronto are ordering all businesses with five or more recent COVID-19 cases to shut down for 10 days.

Peel Public Health was the first to issue the directive for businesses which have discovered the cases over the last 14 days where “the cases could have reasonably acquired their infection at work” or where “no obvious source of infection has been identified outside of the workplace.”

The region’s medical officer of health said workplaces still remain a “major driver of COVID-19 cases in Peel.”

Just after noon, the City of Toronto issued the same directive.

2:02 COVID-19: Peel and Toronto cracking down on workplace outbreaks

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown received his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday.

Brown got the AstraZeneca shot at a pharmacy on the same day that Ontarians aged 40 years and older became eligible for AstraZeneca.

“I want to thank the Ontario government for making vaccines available at pharmacies for residents over the age of 40. The first vaccine available is the best vaccine,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday. “I’m completely confident taking the AstraZeneca vaccine because it has been approved by Health Canada and it has been given to millions of people around the world.

“I encourage all Brampton residents to get vaccinated when you are eligible.”

The Ontario government says beginning as early as Wednesday, 20 select Shoppers Drug Marts in Toronto and the surrounding GTA will offer COVID-19 vaccines 24/7.

The news comes on the day eligibility was expanded for the AstraZeneca vaccine to residents aged 40 and older. It also comes a day after the Ontario government said there would be delays in two upcoming shipments of the vaccine.

Below is the list of the pharmacies:

• 10661 Chinguacousy, Building C, Flectchers Meadow, Brampton
• 160 Main Street South, Brampton
• 49 Mountainash Road, Brampton
• 34 Avondale Boulevard, Brampton
• 1 Kennedy Road South, Brampton
• 25 Great Lakes Drive, Brampton
• 123 Rexdale Boulevard, Etobicoke
• 5230 Dundas Street West, Etobicoke
• 2470 Huronontario Street, Mississauga
• 3975 Jane Street, North York
• 2501 Third Line, Building B, Oakville
• 2345 Yonge Street, Toronto
• 1500 Woodbine Avenue, Toronto
• 1500 Avenue Road, Toronto
• 770 Lawrence Avenue West, Toronto
• 2330 Kennedy Road, Scarborough
• 1235 McCowan Road, Scarborough
• 2901 Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough
• 255 Morningside Avenue, Scarborough
• 4000 Hwy 7, Woodbridge

A Scarborough vaccine clinic is closing until further notice due to a lack of supply.

In a post on Twitter Tuesday afternoon, the Scarborough Centre for Health Communities said the clinic at The Hub will be closing as of Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, the lack of supply has meant clinics at Carefirst, TAIBU, SCHC’s The Mid-Scaborough Hub, Centennial and Centenary hospital had to close,” the post continued.

“These clinics will reopen as soon as more vaccine supply is received.”

After months of refusal, the Ford government is hinting some sort of paid sick leave support for workers in Ontario could be implemented amid the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

Government officials have rejected cries for an Ontario paid sick leave program throughout the pandemic multiple times over several months, citing the federal government’s current benefit in place. As the third wave worsens in Ontario, critics said provincial paid sick leave could help to curb surging numbers.

While speaking to reporters at the Ontario legislature on Tuesday, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton and Health Minister Christine Elliott suggested some assistance might be coming.

1:50 Ontario government hints it will address paid sick leave

The Ontario government’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table is calling for urgent and stronger action to reign in the spread of cases, noting the province’s hospitals are “buckling.”

“Ontario is now facing the most challenging health crisis of our time. Our case counts are at an all-time high. Our hospitals are buckling. Younger people are getting sicker. The disease is ripping through whole families,” a letter issued Tuesday afternoon on behalf of the group’s 40 doctors, medical professionals and scientists said.

“The variants of concern that now dominate COVID-19 in Ontario are, in many ways, a new pandemic, and Ontario needs stronger measures to control the pandemic.”

The Ontario Hockey League has officially cancelled the 2020-21 season, quashing any hopes it could at least salvage a shortened season.

The league informed teams Tuesday morning before making the announcement official later the same day, saying that the current stay-at-home order would make a season impossible.

Ontario is reporting 3,469 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. The provincial total now stands at 424,911.

Tuesday’s case count is lower than Monday’s which saw 4,447 new infections. On Sunday, 4,250 new cases were recorded. It is the first day in a week that cases were not above 4,000.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,757 as 22 more deaths were recorded.

Status of cases in the GTA

Ontario reported 3,469 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

Of those:

• 1074 were in Toronto
• 775 were in Peel Region
• 406 were in York Region
• 256 were in Durham Region
• 130 were in Halton Region

As of 8 p.m. Monday, a total of 3,995,187 COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Ontario, marking an increase of 90,409 over one day.

So far, 347,597 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.

However, a spokesperson for Health Minister Christine Elliott said, “Due to the Rogers outage yesterday, some vaccine clinics were forced to use paper-based reporting. As a result, today’s reported vaccine numbers are an underestimate of the total doses administered the previous day.”

— With files from Jake Jeffrey and The Canadian Press