Here are the latest developments on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Greater Toronto Area for Monday:
13-year-old girl in Brampton dies after testing positive for COVID-19
A 13-year-old Brampton girl has died after testing positive for COVID-19, becoming one of the youngest victims of the virus in Ontario.
A GoFundMe created by a friend of the family, Adrian Goddard, said Emily Victoria Viegas died on April 22.
Goddard told Global News he was a friend of Viegas’ father, Carlos Viegas, through ball hockey and that he had met Emily a few times over the years.
He said Emily’s mother is also in the ICU with COVID-19.
Toronto orders 4 full, 7 partial workplace closures under new COVID-19 order
The City of Toronto has ordered four full and seven partial workplace closures under a new order aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 in businesses.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, the City’s medical officer of health, initially said Monday afternoon that eight businesses were ordered to partially close, but in a news release issued Monday evening, officials said one was “no longer warranted.”
De Villa said the partial closures are for “instances where findings indicate the entire operation does not need to shut down.” She added that could mean a section, a team, or a shift is affected.
1st patient transferred to Sunnybrook mobile tent
The first patient was transferred to Sunnybrook’s mobile tent on Monday.
Ten beds have been made available inside the mobile health unit built to ease the pressure on Ontario hospitals with surging cases in the province.
Toronto police respond to more than 200 gatherings over 4 days
Toronto police say they responded to more than 200 gatherings in the city over four days as officers worked to enforce COVID-19 regulations.
In a news release issued Monday, police said since the introduction of 16 enforcement teams on Thursday, officers attended 210 gatherings in response to calls from the public and laid around 160 charges under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.
Some criminal charges were also laid, including obstructing a police officer and assault.
Canadian military preparing to send ICU nurses, medics after Ontario’s request for help
As Ontario continues to get a handle on the surging third wave of COVID-19 cases and crushing patient loads at intensive care units, the Canadian Armed Forces is preparing for a potential deployment of medical personnel to the province after a recent request for assistance.
“There are over 1,900 patients with COVID-19 in the province of Ontario’s hospitals and of those, 659 are being treated in intensive care for COVID-related illnesses. Nearly 450 patients that are in critical care require a ventilator to breathe,” an unclassified warning order obtained by Global News on Monday said.
“COVID variants of concern have spread rapidly in Ontario in recent weeks and in particular in the Greater Toronto Area. This has resulted in civilian hospital capacity being exceeded.”
Ontario considering sending half its COVID-19 vaccines to hot spot areas, health minister says
Ontario is considering allocating half of its COVID-19 vaccines to hot-spot areas to bring down surging cases.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday the province is weighing a recommendation by its COVID-19 science advisory table, which said allocating shots based on transmission rate rather than age group would bring down COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
Ontario pharmacy group says AstraZeneca vaccine supply could run out by end of the week
The supply of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario pharmacies is quickly draining as officials hope for an injection of supply from south of the border.
With Ontario’s decision to open AstraZeneca appointments to those aged 40 and older last week, demand for the shot has sapped the province’s existing stock, according to the head of the Ontario Pharmacists Association.
Ontario reports 3,510 new COVID-19 cases, 24 deaths
Ontario reported 3,510 new COVID-19 cases on Monday. The provincial total now stands at 448,861.
Monday’s case count is lower than Sunday’s 3,947 new infections and is the second day in a row cases have been lower than 4,000.
The death toll in the province has risen to 7,935 as 24 more deaths were recorded.
Status of cases in the GTA
Ontario reported 3,510 new coronavirus cases on Monday.
Of those:
- 1,015 were in Toronto
- 909 were in Peel Region
- 391 were in York Region
- 244 were in Durham Region
- 143 were in Halton Region
More than 69K additional vaccines administered
As of 8 p.m. Sunday, 4,696,211 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Ontario, marking an increase of 69,308.
So far, 361,166 people in the province are considered to be fully vaccinated.
— With files from Mercedes Stephenson, Craig Lord, and The Canadian Press
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